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Fuel Cells

A fuel cell’s purpose is to produce electricity by using hydrogen, water and heat are the only emissions. They have been around for many years-and some still use fossil fuels as their energy source, such as natural gas or propane.

At Affinity Energy we use pure hydrogen fuel cells to run into a charging source, eliminating the dependence on fossil fuels. Although most compressed hydrogen is created using fossil fuels, our systems differ in that we use other renewable sources of energy to create the hydrogen. Most fuel cell applications are used in an off-grid application where either solar (photovoltaic) panels, wind turbines or hydrogenerating sources are used.

Affinity Energy demonstrates how fuel cells work.

How Fuel Cells Work

As hydrogen flows into the fuel cell on the anode side, a platinum catalyst facilitates the separation of the hydrogen gas into electrons and protons in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell.
The hydrogen ions pass through the membrane and, again with the help of a platinum catalyst, combine with the oxygen and electrons on the cathode side, producing water.
The electrons, which cannot pass through the membrane, flow from the anode to the cathode though an external circuit containing an electric load which consumes the power generated by the cell.

When your batteries are fully charged, and you have excess energy, you can use that extra energy to run into your electrolyzer (An electrolyzer separates hydrogen from oxygen in water using an anode and cathode.) You can store the hydrogen for later use when your other sources of generation are not running and you need an additional charge.

We feel that fuel cells will have a larger role in the future, but currently are feasible for only a few applications. Call us or Contact Us to find out more.