Batteries & Fuel Cells

A history in pictures

1771-1800: The Galvani-Volta Controversy

Luigi Galvani “Animal Electricity”

Alessandro Volta

1800: The First Battery (Voltaic Pile)

1801: Volta presenting his battery to Napoleon.

1800: Fathers of Electrolysis

William Nicholson

Johann Ritter

Anthony Carlisle

In 1800, electrolysis was discovered a few months after Volta’s battery. It seems the discovery was simultaneously made by Nicholson & Ritter in England and by Ritter in Silesia (now Poland) .

1821: The First Electric Motor1835: The First BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle)

Michael Faraday Sibrandus Stratingh

1836: The Grove Battery and the Daniel Battery

Grove’s Battery

Daniell’s Battery

Grove’s Battery provided more power than Volta’s battery but leaked poisonous gas. Daniel’s battery was safer and was used in the first telegraphs.

John F. Daniel

1838: Backwards Electrolysis

Anode catalyst

Cathodecatalyst

H+H+

H+

H+

H+H+

Electric circuit e-e-e-e-

e- e-

H2

Fuel

O2

From air

O2

O2

O2

H2OExhaust

PolymerElectrode membrane

H2

Anode catalyst

Cathodecatalyst

H+H+

H+

H+

H+H+

Electric circuit e-e-e-e-

e- e-

H2

Fuel

O2

From air

O2

O2

O2

H2OExhaust

PolymerElectrode membrane

H2

Christian Friedrich Schönbein

1839: First Fuel Cell (Grove’s “Gas Battery”)

Sir William Grove

1859: The Lead battery is invented1887: The first full-scale electric car

Gaston Plante Lead-Acid Battery

1888: Morrison’s electric car ran on 24 lead-acid battery cells. Here it is shown at a Des Moines parade.

1889: Improved Fuel Cell1897: Electric Taxis

1901: Nickel-Iron Rechargeable Battery (Edison Battery)

NY Electric Taxi

Mond & Langer’s Fuel Cell

1910: The Edison Battery is tried in a automobile

1912: Rechargeable BEV1939-1958: BEVs off market1959: The Henney Kilowatt

Edison with a 1912 Detroit Electric

1959: The Alkali Fuel Cell1967: First Fuel Cell Vehicle

1965: A U.S. Army soldier operates a portable drillpowered by an alkali fuel cell.

Francis Thomas Bacon with his Alkali Fuel cell.

Karl Kordesch rides his alkali fuel cell motorbike.

1961-1969:The Apollo Project

Fuel cells are used to power the spacecraft computers and life-support systems because they are safer than nuclear and smaller than solar. The astronauts drink the water that is produced from the electrolysis.

1975: BEV range to charge is still only 60 miles1979: The fuel cell golf cart

1994: Fuel cell bus1996: GM’s EV1

2007: GM Sequel and Tesla Roadster

Why choose cars for our project?

References• http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/Gallery/Gallery0.html pictures of scientists

• http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/fuelcells/fc_types.html types of fuel cells

• http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/GroveBio.htm sir william grove

• http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/nicholson.html willliam nicholson

• http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectric2a.htm history of BEVs

• http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/phos/pafcmain.htm fuel cell history