Given all the incredible technology developed or improved during the Apollo program, it’s impossible to pick out just one piece of hardware that made humanity’s first crewed landing on another celestial body possible. But if you had to make a list of the top ten most important pieces of gear stacked on top of the Saturn V back in 1969, the fuel cell would have to place pretty high up there.
Smaller and lighter than batteries of the era, each of the three alkaline fuel cells (AFCs) used in the Apollo Service Module could produce up to 2,300 watts of power when fed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the latter of which the spacecraft needed to bring along anyway for its life support system. The best part was, as a byproduct of the reaction, the fuel cells produced drinkable water.
The AFC was about as perfectly suited to human spaceflight as you could get, so when NASA was designing the Space Shuttle a few years later, it’s no surprise that they decided to make them the vehicle’s primary electrical power source. While each Orbiter did have backup batteries for emergency purposes, the fuel cells were responsible for powering the vehicle from a few minutes before launch all the way to landing. There was no Plan B. If an issue came up with the fuel cells, the mission would be cut short and the crew would head back home — an event that actually did happen a few times during the Shuttle’s 30 year career.
This might seem like an incredible amount of faith for NASA to put into such a new technology, but in reality, fuel cells weren’t really all that new even then. The space agency first tested their suitability for crewed spacecraft during the later Gemini missions in 1965, and Francis Thomas Bacon developed the core technology all the way back in 1932.
So one has to ask…if fuel cell technology is nearly 100 years old, and was reliable and capable enough to send astronauts to the Moon back in 1960s, why don’t we see them used more today?
Fuel Cell 101
Before continuing to bemoan their absence from our everyday lives, perhaps it would be helpful to take a moment and explain what a fuel cell is.
In the most basic configuration, the layout of a fuel cell is not entirely unlike a traditional battery. You’ve got an anode that serves as the negative terminal, a cathode for the positive, and an electrolyte in between them. There’s actually a number of different electrolytes that can be used, which in turn dictate both the pressure the cell operates at and the fuel it consumes. But we don’t really need to get into the specifics — it’s enough to understand that the electrolyte allows positively charged ions to move through it, while negatively charged electrons are blocked.
The electrons are eager to get to the party on the other side of the electrolyte, so once the fuel cell is connected to a circuit, they’ll rush through to get over to the cathode. Each cell usually doesn’t produce much electricity, but gang a bunch of them up in serial and you can get your total output into a useful range.
One other element to consider is the catalyst. Again, the specifics can change depending on the type of fuel cell and what it’s consuming, but in general, the catalyst is there to break the fuel down. For example, plating the anode with a thin layer of platinum will cause hydrogen molecules to split as they pass through.
Earthly Vehicle Applications
So we know they were used extensively by NASA up until the retirement of the Shuttle back in 2011, but spacecraft aren’t the only vehicles that have used fuel cells for power.
There’s been quite a number of cars that used fuel cells, ranging from prototypes to production models. In fact, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai actually have fuel cell cars available for sale currently. They’re not terribly widespread however, with availability largely limited to Japan and California as those are nearly the only places you’ll find hydrogen filling stations.
Of course, not all vehicles need to be filled up at a public pump. There have been busses and trains powered by fuel cells, but again, none have ever enjoyed much widespread success. In the early 2000s there were some experimental fuel cell aircraft, but those efforts were hampered by the fact that electric aircraft in general are still in their infancy.
Interestingly, outside of their space applications, fuel cells seem to have enjoyed the most success on the water. While still a minority in the grand scheme of things, there have been a number of fuel cell passenger ferries over the years, with a few still in operation to this day. There’s also been a bit of interest by the world’s navies, with both the German and Italian government collaborating on the development of the Type 212A submarine. Each of the nine fuel cells on the sub can produce up to 50 kW, and together they allow the submarine to remain submerged for weeks — a trick that’s generally only possible with a nuclear-fueled vessels.
Personal Power Plants
While fuel cell vehicles have only seen limited success, there’s plenty of other applications for the technology, some of which are arguably more interesting than a hydrogen-breathing train anyway.
At least for a time, it seemed fuel cells would have a future powering our personal devices like phones and laptops. Modern designs don’t require the liquid oxygen of the Apollo-era hardware, and can instead suck in atmospheric air. You still need the hydrogen, but that can be provided in small replaceable cylinders like many other commercially-available gases.
The peak example of this concept has to be the Horizon MiniPak. This handheld fuel cell was designed to power all of your USB gadgets with its blistering 2 watt output, and used hydrogen cylinders which could either be tossed when they were empty or refilled with a home electrolysis system. Each cylinder reportedly contained enough hydrogen to generate 12 watt-hours, which would put each one about on par with a modern 18650 cell.
The device made its debut at that the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but despite contemporary media coverage talking about an imminent commercial release, it’s not clear that it was ever actually sold in significant numbers.
Looking at what’s on the market currently, a company called EFOY offers a few small fuel cells that seem to be designed for RVs and boats. They certainly aren’t handheld, with the most diminutive model roughly the size of a small microwave, but at least it puts out 40 watts. Unfortunately, the real problem is the fuel — rather than breathing hydrogen and spitting out pure water, the EFOY units consume methanol and output as a byproduct the creeping existential nightmare of being burned alive by invisible fire.
DIY To the Rescue?
If the free market isn’t offering up affordable portable fuel cells, then perhaps the solution can be found in the hacker and maker communities. After all, this is Hackaday — we cover home-spun alternatives for consumer devices on a daily basis.
Except, not in this case. While there are indeed very promising projects like the Open Fuel Cell, we actually haven’t seen much activity in this space. A search through the back catalog while writing this article shows the term “fuel cell” has appeared fewer than 80 times on these pages, and of those occurrences, almost all of them were discussing some new commercial development. There were two different fuel cell projects entered into the 2015 Hackaday Prize, but unfortunately both of those appear to have been dead ends.
So Dear Reader, the question is simple: what’s the hold up with mainstream fuel cells? The tech is not terribly complex, and a search online shows plenty of companies selling the parts and even turn-key systems. There’s literally a site called Fuel Cell Store, so why don’t we see more of them in the wild? Got a fuel cell project in the back of your mind? Let us know in the comments.
“why don’t we see them used more today?”
Without reading below the fold, I’m gonna say: producing, storing, transporting, and dispensing the H2 and O2.
well here on earth you dont really need to worry about the O2, theres plenty of it floating around.
Less and less every year though. If we don’t take decisive action to eliminate CO2 emissions, by 2070 there may not be enough oxygen to support life on Earth.
Calm down chicken little. The rate of decline is small, with annual changes being less than 0.001% It is estimated that we have around a billion years until its a real issue. Increase in CO2 and CO are a far greater concern than the minimal decrease in oxygen levels.
This was my reaction too – going way back to the early 2000s when the Federal government was trying to push Hydrogen as a fuel alternative to Gasoline. It was a bad fit. Hydrogen is abundant, but relatively expensive to generate and store – and in failure cases the results are catastrophic. Arguably worse than gasoline.
No. Pure water is not drinkable. the correct wording would have be: The best part was, as a byproduct of the reaction, the fuel cells produced water which, after addition of mineral, could be made into drinkable water.
what? i understand that over a span of time, you can deplete minerals in the body that would normally be provided by drinking water….but i did not have the impression that there was any real downside to drinking pure water? “distilled water is generally considered potable” ??
yep this is one of those nutter interpretations of half facts that would require you to consume NOTHING other than distilled water as we get minerals from everything we eat and drink. You arent going to leech out essential minerals and die because you drink distilled water. Im 50 and I have drunk a gallon of distilled water almost every day for the last 25 years and continue to pass my biannual physicals with flying colors.
The “pure water is poison” thing isn’t true. As long as you are eating a proper diet you get minerals from food. As someone who has lived off of reverse osmosis water at 0-2 ppm TDS for months at a time. There is literally no additional planning required to compensate for long term use of “pure” water.
For me it is the same fuel problem as other esoteric generators… It is not difficult to obtain, but it is niche enough that it needs the right application to make sense, and so many other technologies also overlap this niche.
Like, it only makes sense at home if you can handle your own fuel, which likely means electrolysis, which requires a great deal of electricity. But if I have a lot of electricity like solar, I don’t need to use a fuel cell for power. I can just go directly from solar to battery and take batteries with me.
The use for clean water does make much more sense, and I could see solar running a fuel cell with the only goal of putting out water in areas where it is scarce, like the desert?
Perhaps that is a usecase that deserves more experimentation as the need for water is likely greater than the need for power? And the simplicity of the fuel cells would mean this is a fairly reliable system that might be possible to leave unattended or something that could be fixed by a passers’ by if needed?
For vehicles the issue is entirely infrastructure related. Without a robust network of fueling stations you cant get market traction. We wont likely see many fuel cell vehicles until two events tip the scale, Federal mandates to eliminate petrochemical fueling, and the maturation of the Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell. Pretty much the whole world has a solid network of liquid fuel dispensaries which will easily switch over when DEFC equipped vehicles start hitting the streets.
An interesting area of note is Natural Gas reformer supplied fuel cells for home power. As of early 2025, the number of fuel cell-powered homes in Japan is over 400,000. A far cry from their original goal of 1.4Million by 2020 but its still a respectable number. The systems only run 1.5-2 million yen (about $13,000-$18,000) per unit before government subsidies.
While a single home system like this is interesting, There are many properties on the MLS with their own natural gas wells that could potentially supply a Neighborhood Scale Power Plant. A single Mirai Fuel cell (114kw) could power upwards to 90 homes if outfitted with a properly scaled reformer system if the property had sufficient natural gas reserves.
Yes, but how is it better than just burning the natural gas in a turbine connected to a generator and directly making electricity?
Turbine = 20-40% efficiency
Reformer fed fuel cells = 65-75% efficiency that bumps up to 90-95% when its heat is captured and used for hot water/home heating purposes.
They also have lower pollution output, lower noise, fewer moving parts/less maintenance requirements.
wow! i have been dreaming of the possibility of powering my house off of natural gas instead of electricity (which is coal, here). off the top of my head, i think electricity is about twice the per-watt cost of gas here (i.e., resistive heat is much more expensive than natural gas heat, but a heat pump can at least break even).
i knew it was vaguely possible, but i had no idea it had been deployed en masse anywhere!
“…rather than breathing hydrogen and spitting out pure water, the EFOY units consume methanol and output as a byproduct the creeping existential nightmare of being burned alive by invisible fire.”
I simply must commend the author on this wonderful turn of phrase. A great start to my hopefully-methanol-free day.
I’ve had the interested in grabbing a forklift fuel cell for general powering medium to large contraptions purposes. The issue is I run into although it is better in some areas vs a gas generator. I would need the infrastructure to refill it.
Where if I get a gas generator I can have something more general purpose.
However little fuel cells (around a liter in size) I can see a use for me. I live in a cold wintery area where solar can be iffy and cold can screw with the batteries. Something cheap that can provide both heat and electricity would be nice.
Of course I can’t find little fuel cells off the shelf. So Ive been looking at what it would take to make one.
Then I run into ok so if I want to make my own hydrogen I can go electrolysis or throw in chemicals to generate hydrogen. Well if you don’t do electrolysis right and pure you get an impure hydrogen + oxygen mix that is explosive. Okay what about chemicals. Alright those are pretty safe when done right. But wait thats a recurring expense to refill this thing?
Okay what about materials to build this fuel cell. Carbon paper, platinum, wait a minute this stuff is expensive. 30 bucks I can get a bigger solar panel to combat the winter clouds via overkill design and a resistive heater.
That all being said I still want to make a little fuel cell for fun.
I’ll probably end up scavenging for parts, already I just got an idea of stealing platinum from catalytic converters. I have access to some old cars, so old they might not have fancy catalytic converters but its an idea.
The basic problem is that they have no niche that’s not filled adequately by current battery technology. You can plug a lithium battery of some sort into the grid and charge it with enough power to do what you want, at a fairly reasonable capital cost and pretty good efficiency.
Compare that to a fuel cell. These generally come in two types. Either they consume hydrogen which, despite the hand-waving of the article, is still a pain. Typical electrolysis processes run at about 70%, transporting the stuff is difficult and it’s very explosive if you get it wrong. Or they consume methanol. This is easier to obtain and the storage and explosive problems are much less. But direct methanol fuel cells are not very efficient, while reforming methanol fuel cells operate at high temperatures.
The fuel cell dream is to have a simple device that you pour fuel into at one end and which efficiently produces electricity at the scale needed locally. This dream will always run into some basic limits which mean that small-scale electricity generation is always inefficient.
I’ve seen a test done in a warehouse for forklifts. Fuel cells had a very high internal resistance, generate a LOT of heat, and low output power. And they failed. The cooling fan screams. There’s a reason why you don’t see this amazing technology in everyday life…
When I think about fuel cells I think about something entirely else, namely fuel cells. I was rather confused when I clicked on the article and started to read.
Weird that two products have the same name and used in a very similar application. The fuel cell’s I know have been in use for decades and required for tons of different automotive racing applications as a safety measure. A fuel cell is a cell that holds fuel. It consists of a (usually) aluminium box, with a bag lining (bladder) on the inside that’s actually holding the fuel. That is filled with special foam to both serve as baffling and as a fire prevention system. If the vehicle goes upside down, it won’t leak and the fuel cell should be relatively self healing if punctured. Holley has been making fuel cells for decades and they sell like hot cakes. Fuel cells are required in open wheel racing, rally, drag racing (at high levels), etc.
Hydrogen fuel cells might make a comeback if ammonia cars are going to hit the western market. There are already thousands of ammonia cars driving around in China. But standard hydrogen cars is old discarded technology and a disaster. Ammonia fixes the giant problem of storing hydrogen by eliminating that entire step. If you don’t need to store it, you don’t have the issues, you don’t need to transport it anymore in very expensive trailers, store it in underground high pressure containers, use extremely expensive pumps to pump it into a car that can’t store it properly, to use it there. It doesn’t work. An average gasoline pump is 30k new, 5-10k a year maintenance. A hydrogen pump is over a million new, 10k a month in maintenance. Making it is expensive, the trucks are extremely expensive if they want to store hydrogen for transporation. Every step of the way is extremely expensive and can only work if the government wastes a lot of money on subsidies. It’s not realistic. That’s why Toyota said they are going to stop producing the cars. They are the last manufacturer (other car manufacturers use Toyota drivelines). It’s done, it’s over. Without the government wasting money on it, it will cost maybe 50 or 100 bucks a kilometer to drive a direct hydrogen car. Now if Ammonia is coming, that will all change. I think that might be the future of green cars, especially since we need to replace electric cars with something better. And you can get ammonia everywhere. From every farm, sewer, from the air. It’s easy to produce in large quantities, relatively easy to store, you can just fill up an ammonia car like a normal car, takes less than 2 minutes and you can drive off, and you drive the greenest vehicle there is. You can either let the nitrogen go up in the air and make the grass greener, or collect it and sell it off to farmers. Plants crave ammonia cars.
” That’s why Toyota said they are going to stop producing the cars.”
Theres a 2026 Mirai in production. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=towYyR4wQ5w
Ive not seen anything that says they are ditching fuel cell vehicles. Maybe you got confused when they cut the Mirai LTD from their 2025 lineup, only shipping the lower cost Mirai XLE.