With cheap and easily accessible oil coming to an end together with the realisation that gas supply will peak in just 20 years, the need to find clean, alternative energy sources is becoming increasingly important.

Hydrogen is the most abundant and oldest element in the Universe and is widely used in the chemical industry. Using hydrogen in fuel cells is emission-free and considerably more efficient than other alternative energy sources, including electricity harnessed from wave and tidal action.

But fuel cell technology isn’t as new as most people think!

They were first demonstrated in 1839 by the lawyer, Sir William Grove, when he produced proof that electricity could be generated using hydrogen and oxygen. Unfortunately, the potential of his work went largely unrecognised and apart from sporadic experiments picking up his work throughout the 19th Century, none reached a satisfactory conclusion.

Until one attempt was made by the Norsk Hydro Company in 1933, who modified one of their small trucks to run on Hydrogen instead of gasoline, this was a massive leap forward.

In the UK, in 1932, Dr. Francis Thomas Bacon, engineering professor at Cambridge University in England, created the first alkaline fuel cell, which he named the “Bacon cell”.

Bacon worked for the British military during WWII, and continued his research. But the war ended before any firm results from his work could be established. He never gave up though and by 1959 had patented his device and demonstrated a fuel cell unit that developed 6 kilo-Watt of power - enough to power an electric welder!

Scientific interest was piqued in the 1950s and 60s when saw the ‘lightweight’ fuel potential of these types of cells when creating aircraft to capable of manned space flight.

A developed Bacon cell was created and consequently, NASA has used alkali fuel cells on the Apollo Moon mission and on into the present time with the Space Shuttle flights.

Several countries, including Germany, Canada and the US, have invested heavily in fuel cell research and development, and already encourage and support the use of this technology to create energy.

In recent years ‘Hydrogen village’ projects in Toronto, Hamburg and elsewhere have helped overcome the chicken and egg questions by introducing user products and hydrogen generation and distribution infrastructure. Fuel cell systems are being introduced in domestic combined heat and power, where the hydrogen is reformed within the system from natural gas.

As more and more developments take place and more projects are initiated, Hydrogen Fuel Cells will become more and more commonplace and essential in our bid to cope with ever increasing oil prices and the need to produce cleaner energy for a greener future.

You can learn more about current projects using Hydrogen Fuel cells around the world at: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/hydrogen-fuel/ and more about the varied history of using Hydrogen reactions as fuel at: http://www.fchea.org/core/import/PDFs/factsheets/factSheet_history.pdf