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Fuel cells were once touted as the ultimate high-tech solution to short laptop battery life, but nearly two decades later we still don’t have them and it seems we never will. What happened to this promising computer power source?
What Is a Fuel Cell?
A fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy into electricity. So in that regard, it does the same thing a battery does. The difference comes from how a fuel cell generates an electrical current.
Just like a battery, a fuel cell has an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte. Ions (electrically-charged atoms) move from one to the other, which generates a current. Unlike a battery, energy isn’t stored in the fuel cell. Instead, the cell requires a constant supply of fuel and oxygen. In the case of a hydrogen fuel cell, that would be hydrogen from a storage tank and oxygen from the…