Why Is the Promise of Fuel Cells Still Unfulfilled?

[banerjeerupak]

About an year ago, i had heard a lot about the upcoming technology of fuel cells. i was pretty intrigued by the description that it combined, hydrogen and oxygen to form pure water. no wastage. i believed it would be the alternative fuel we were in search of.
why then is there not much progress in this field.
is there any site giving constructional details of the fuel cell

 

[sid_galt]

- Hydrogen storage
- Efficiency of hydrogen production
- Efficiency of net process from production of H2 to actual work done
- High cost of fuel cells (10 times costlier than the piston)
- Hydrogen manufacture and distribution infrastructure
- Cost of Hydrogen

 

[russ_watters]

As sid implied, there are a number of mostly economic hurdles that need to be overcome (perhaps with technology) before it becomes mainstream.

A clarification: since hydrogen does not occur naturally in usable quantities, it must be manufactured, either from water or from methane. Since getting it from water is the same reaction by which it creates electricity, running in the opposite direction, there is no net gain of energy: it is just a storage method.

 

[banerjeerupak]

i get it so the momentum of the project has slowed down due to the hurdles that have been coming up.