History of Fuel Cells

1838 – Christian Friedrich discovered the effect of fuel cells: combining hydrogen and oxygen gases to produce electric current.
1845 – Sir William Grove: Sir William Grove demonstrated Friedrich’s discovery on a practical scale by creating a gas battery.
1889 – Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer attempted to construct the first device called a fuel cell.
1898 – James Dewar first produced liquid hydrogen.
1930 – Emil Baur and H. Preis conducted experiments with high-temperature solid oxide electrolytes.
1939 -1958 – Francis Thomas began researching alkaline fuel cells and worked on an alkaline fuel cell to power a Royal Navy submarine.
1958 – G.H.J. Broers and J.A. Ketelaar started building a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell.
1960 – General Electric developed the first PEM fuel cell.
1962 – Pratt & Whitney licensed Francis Thomas Bacon Alkaline Fuel Cell patents and won a contract to power the Apollo Spacecraft.
1990 – The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Southern California developed the Direct Methanol Fuel Cell.
2000 – Ballard Power Systems produced the world’s first commercially available fuel cell for automotive applications.
2007 – Honda announced the first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle, the Honda FCX.
2016 – Toyota produced its first fuel cell vehicle: the Mirai.
2019 – The U.S. Department of Energy allocated a $31 million fund to fuel cell research.

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