A comprehensive tutorial on fuel cells, written and designed for high school and college students, is now available at Los Alamos National Laboratory's education Web site. There is also information about other types of fuel cells and fuels, a brief overview of potential uses for fuel cells and information about areas in need of further research. A fuel cell produces electricity by electrochemically combining hydrogen fuel, which can be obtained from fuels such as natural gas, methanol, or petroleum, and oxygen from the air. When fueled by pure hydrogen, heat and pure water vapor are the only by-products from the fuel cell's electrochemical reaction.
Fuel cells operate using hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air.
Hydrogen can be obtained through reforming or chemically converting hydrocarbon based fuels such as natural gas, methanol, or gasoline to release the hydrogen so that it can be used by the fuel cell. Fuel cell systems that are not fueled by pure hydrogen will contain a reformer subsystem to convert the source fuel used to the hydrogen required by the fuel cell. Hydrogen can also be produced by water electrolysis, which uses electricity to split hydrogen and oxygen elements. Hydrogen can also be produced by water electrolysis, which uses electricity to split hydrogen and oxygen elements. We regret that we are unable to offer tours of our facilities.