Sir William Grove Image Courtesy of Swansea Museum

In the late 1830’s Sir William Grove discovered a method of reversing electrolysis to produce electricity. Essentially, he built the first fuel cell which he called a “gaseous voltaic battery”. He used electrodes made of platinum, which was known to catalyze the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen by lowering the temperature needed for the reaction to take place and making the process of generating electricity more efficient.

The term fuel cell was later coined in 1889 by Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer, who attempted to modify the technology so that it would generate electricity using coal gas and air. Further research into fuel cells continued into the 1900’s but then slowed with the advent of the internal combustion engine.

Francis Thomas Bacon, a descendant of the scholar, Sir Francis Bacon, developed and

Triad of fuel cells used for onboard power in the NASA Apollo Mission Image courtsey of UTC Fuel Cells

refined the first practical hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell from the late 1930s to the 1950s. The Bacon cell represented the next step in fuel cell technology from Mond and Langer design. Bacon used potassium hydroxide (KOH) as an electrolyte, which not as corrosive to electrodes as acid, and pressurized hydrogen to provide a steady flow of hydrogen to the electrodes. This technology was adopted by NASA for electrical power in the Apollo missions.

Allis-Chalmers fuel cell tractor Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Harry Imig of Allis-Chalmers develops what is believed to be the first hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicle, a tractor ⁽¹⁾. In 1954, Tom Grubb of General Electric (GE) developed the first Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell. GE spent $8.5 million of their own money during the 1960s and 1970s in order to develop a less expensive fuel cell only to sell their fuel cell technology and let patents expire.

In the 1980s North American fuel cell research was focused at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Ballard Research in Vancouver, BC. Budgets and staff were relatively small but the advancements were innovative. Fuel cell technology advanced far enough that auto manufacturers began to take a serious look at using PEM fuel cells to power vehicles. Today, almost every major auto manufacturer has developed a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

This timeline is an interactive way to explore the history of hydrogen and fuel cells. It was developed by the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Lab and requires a Flash Player plug-in for your browser.