Government Policies Help Promote Clean Transportation in India: Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells for Vehicles

The fuel-cell (FC) concept was invented and demonstrated in the early 18th century by Humphrey Davy. The FC itself was developed in 1839 by the chemist William Grove, who conducted a series of experiments with what he called a gas-voltaic battery. The term fuel cell was first used in 1889 by Charles Langer and Ludwig Mond, who researched FCs using coal gas as a fuel. In the early 1960s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its industrial partners conducted experiments on manned space vehicles based on alkaline FCs (AFCs). Later, the international FC made advances in the AFC for the Apollo space mission, which resulted in supporting the requirements of drinking water and electricity for the astronauts.