There are plenty of sorts of fuel cells, but the most typical one is named a proton exchange surface or PEM fuel cell. This kind of fuel cell sometimes uses hydrogen, but other fuel types may also be used ( like methanol, ethanol etc ). When methanol or ethanol is utilized, the name of the fuel cell changes to direct methanol fuel cell or direct ethanol fuel cell.

Now, hydrogen is fed into the fuel cell, and platinum / carbon catalyst breaks the hydrogen into protons and electrons. Since protons and electrons are charged species, they can't exist for exceedingly long in nature because they're unstable. Everything in nature always moves toward neutralization or a balance of energies. For instance, if something is very hot in nature, the heat is distributed to its environment, and ultimately the temperature of the hot object equals the temperature of the environment.
In the case of ions, certainly and adversely charged molecules can't survive for long without mixing with another molecule to make it steadier. Now let's get back to the debate to hand -- so in the fuel cell, the hydrogen is broken into protons and electrons. Typically protons and electrons wouldn't be in a position to stay in the ionic form exceedingly long, but as the platinum / carbon catalyst layer is hooked up to the persulfonic acid surface layer, the hydrogen protons can travel thru the membrane to the cathode side of the fuel cell. Meanwhile, the electrons are drawn to the hydrogen flow field plate, which is also pressed against the fuel cell layer and is highly conductive. The electrons are then drawn from the fuel cell catalyst layer to power the load. The protons that traveled over to the cathode thru the surface then mix with oxygen coming into the fuel cell and create water. Fascinating stuff, huh? How a fuel cell works is fascinating, but how are we going to convert over to the hydrogen economy? Well, first we had to clarify the way the hydrogen is basically used -- and now we are going to get into how our present economy can be transformed into a hydrogen one. So, did you know where hydrogen now comes from? There's a lot of info out there on how fuel cells work, the advantages of fuel cells, and how we might be much better off using them. Infrequently do these articles get into the sticky situation of deliberating where the hydrogen comes from. Well, as many of you almost certainly know, hydrogen isn't available on this planet in a solely gaseous form. It's found everywhere in nature, but it is mixed with other elements to form other sorts of molecules. the hydrogen must be made. Lots of you won't like to hear this ( and we even quail at announcing it ), but the majority of the hydrogen gas now produced is made from petroleum-based fuels. Aha ( you are saying ) ! WE knew there had been a catch to this! OK we admit -- it does appear to be a sticky situation. At least we now have a way that hydrogen is made.
At first impression it sort of feels like this won't be any better than our present solution -- but it is. Why this is a better solution is often because hydrogen can be made using many different techniques. The interim solution for changing to a hydrogen economy would be to use petroleum-based fuels and coal. Now you are doubtless thinking -- this person must be absolutely out of whack! Well, talking from an engineer's perspective, coal isn't that bad of an interim solution. There are numerous reasons why we say this:

1. Pros estimate that there is only thirty years of petroleum-based fuels left on this planet.

2. In the US alone, it is determined that we have three hundred years of fuel from coal that may be utilized.

3. Nations that tap into their coal resources can be more independent, stronger and richer than nations that depend on petroleum-based fuels.

4. The Clean Coal Technologies program in the U. S. ( instituted in 1986 ), has commercialized numerous technologies for forestalling pollution due to coal processing. Coal is not the unclean fuel that it used to be.

5. There are countless coal processing plants across the US and many parts of the planet.

In the US, half the electricity is generated by coal. Thus, new plants may not have to be constructed. We may have plants that generate electrical energy and hydrogen. A current project that is exploiting this idea is the FutureGen project, which is backed by the U.S. regime and personal industry.
O.K, you say that is nice. Why would we are going thru all this difficulty to generate hydrogen from petroleum-based fuels and coal? Well, it's a very good question.
Our petrol and coal resources are limited. A far better solution for the future generations would be using pure hydrogen.
So, you may ask, what are the other manufacturing techniques for manufacturing hydrogen? Well, there are numerous different fuels and techniques that may be used to supply hydrogen. A number of these include:

1. Nuclear energy

2. Biomass

3. Biofuels

4. Water electrolysis

Initial research has shown that it is costlier to use hydrogen from petroleum-based fuels, coal, biomass and biofuels due to the value of manufacturing hydrogen. The price tag can be reduced. Current guesstimates are based on tiny amounts of hydrogen produced. And there haven't been many studies conducted with biomass, biofuels or water electrolysis. The optimum solution for hydrogen production is water electrolysis. You won't hear about this much, because huge firms are a component in determining the result of the fuel cell industry. If they'd their way, we might only use fuel cells that are gasoline-fed or all the hydrogen would be generated from petroleum-based fuels. But there are better solutions. Now let's get back to making the hydrogen economy. OK, so you assert that there are lots of methods to produce hydrogen? Yes. O.K, so how can this transliterate into a hydrogen economy? I have heard the cost to switch the existing infrastructure to hydrogen would be so amazing that it would not even be worth doing. I am not going to lie to you -- it'll be pricey to change the infrastructure. we're going to have to do it at some particular point. There are lots of nations that are racing to get to this point earlier instead of later. As an example, Japan has the tightest timeline to convert to a hydrogen economy. Their goal is to have a hydrogen economy in place by the year 2020. This is surely within all our lifetimes. So, extra factors to think about are hydrogen storage and transport. There are plenty of sorts of hydrogen storage that are used, and can be reasonably made if industrially produced. The transport could be more of a challenge.

One way is to have many plants ( as discussed earlier ) that produce electricity and hydrogen all over the country , making the transport costs low.
Maybe the most suitable option, ( or the one this writer favors the most ), is using solar cells to destroy water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then without delay feeding the hydrogen into the fuel cell. There are one or two hydrogen gas stations in California that utilize this idea. The solar cells are basically built onto the gas station roof to supply hydrogen to the pumps. Imagine using this idea by having solar energy panels on everybody's house or auto to generate all of electricity required! There are many methods that hydrogen can be generated, and there are countless configurations for hydrogen storage and use. Yes, the change from a petroleum-based to a hydrogen-based economy will be dear, but what's more dear in the long run? Isn't it more expensive to use petroleum-based fuels whose resources are limited, to be in thrall to the rising gas costs, to be reliant upon other nations for fuel, and spend billions of bucks for wars that are most likely due ( on some level ) to our dependence on petroleum? What's basically more costly?