FUEL CELLS AS FUTURE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCE FOR THE CARIBBEAN

The prospect of high efficiencies, absence of gaseous pollutants like SOX and NOX, the absence of moving parts, ease of operation, ease of fabrication, high output efficiency compared to internal combustion engines, wide temperature workability and availability in various power ranges are some of the merits which make fuel cells the choice of energy devices for the 21st century. Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is ideally located near to American continent (south as well as north) which have been the hub of fuel cell research and application. Apart from its strategic position on the globe, T&T is ideal place to promote the advance power source technologies based on natural gas, hydrogen or methanol. With oil reserves running short everywhere including Trinidad, there is a definite need to look and work into the alternate energy sources for future, fuel cells being one of them. This paper discusses the advantages and challenges faced in the fuel cell technology. It also discusses the efforts being made at Caribbean First Fuel Cell Materials Research Lab at Department of Physics, St. Augustine campus in development of new electrolyte materials for fuel cell application