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What are the advantages and disadvantages of fuel cells?

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One of the most obvious advantages of fuel cells is that the result of the chemical reaction is water. Compare staring at a by product of water versus standing behind the exhaust pipe of your vehicle! As we are being made more and more aware, the fumes from your car and the millions of other vehicles around the world are creating havoc with the ozone layer and the environment in general. One of the reasons for the fumes and heat generated from the gasoline-operated internal combustion engine is that the much of energy used to run the motor is wasted as heat or unusable gases. In other words, from a physics standpoint, the gas combustion engine is not that efficient. Theoretically, the fuel cell engine is much more efficient. But, the fuel cell is not yet the perfect solution to saving the environment and weaning the world's "addiction to oil". First of all, hydrogen is not an easy gas to contain and supply continuously into the fuel cell of your car or other power-hungry mechanism. It must be delivered to the fuel cell after being converted from another form, often some type of hydrogen fuel. So, the fuel issue remains to some extent. Fortunately, fuels like methanol seem to be effective suppliers of the hydrogen needed in fuel cells. Remaining "quirky" problems with fuel cells include the difficulty of getting fuel cells to work in cold weather. Also, they tend to be large! It takes stacks and stacks of fuel cells to operate a vehicle. Slowly, but surely, scientists are finding ways to make them more space-efficient. Other good news is that even though this technology is still being improved upon, fuel cells buses can be found in some metropolitan areas. Many expect wide spread use of fuel cells to increase in the coming years.

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