Applications of main types of fuel cells in industry

The energy crisis is one of the problems that human beings have to face. Fuel cells as one kind of green and renewable energy was designed. The purpose of this study was to find out whether fuel cells can replace depleting of non-renewable energy resources in industry and study the characteristics of fuel cell. There are seven types of fuel cell mainly used in industry. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell is the most common one. The direct methanol fuel cell is another kind of fuel cell using as reliable power for portable applications but quite similar with the proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The phosphoric acid fuel cell is the oldest one among fuel cells and has been partly replaced by other kinds of fuel cells. Alkaline fuel cell is the best in research status, but the regenerative fuel cell as its own limited is hardly in commercial activities. The molten carbonate fuel cell and the solid oxide fuel cell are two of the best among all of fuel cells and have been used in industry widely. According to the different kinds of characteristics of different fuel cells, they are used in car manufacture, space programs and stationary power plants. Most of them are still in research status; in this case the fuel cell is still an immature product. It can be the one kind of new energy resource but the problems are obvious and have to be covered by scientists