Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells Science, Engineering, and the Hydrogen Economy

By Perumal Pugazhendhi

Fuel cells occupy a peculiar place in the modern energy conversation. They are simultaneously the oldest electrochemical power technology-older than the internal combustion engine-and one of the most futuristic. Sir William Grove built the first in 1839; more than a century later, alkaline cells flew to the Moon, and phosphoric acid cells became the first fuel cells to earn a living on the ground, quietly powering hospitals, data centers, and campuses through grid outages that combustion generators could not ride through.
This book is about that workhorse: the phosphoric acid fuel cell, or PAFC. It is not the highest-efficiency cell, nor the smallest, nor the cheapest. What it offers instead is a combination that has proven commercially durable: tolerance to impure, reformed hydrogen; an operating temperature high enough to deliver genuinely useful heat; and a service life measured in decades. In an era of decarbonization and distributed power, those qualities are being rediscovered.
Why a new edition, and why now
The technology has not stood still, and neither should a textbook about it. The years leading to 2026 brought maturation of high-temperature polybenzimidazole membranes that blur the old line between PAFC and PEMFC, the arrival of machine-learning diagnostics that can hear a stack failing before a human can, and a hydrogen economy that has begun putting real steel in the ground-only to discover, through the project cancellations of 2025 and 2026, how unforgiving the economics of clean fuel remain. That reckoning, examined in Chapter 23, has if anything strengthened the case for the fuel-flexible stationary technologies this book describes. Meanwhile the costs, capacities, and comparisons that students need have all shifted. This edition updates the numbers, adds the new physics, and-most importantly-rebuilds the material as a course rather than a monograph.
Who this book is for
The intended reader is an upper-level undergraduate or beginning graduate student in chemical, mechanical, materials, electrical, or energy engineering, or a working professional entering the field. The prerequisites are modest: general chemistry, introductory thermodynamics, and enough calculus to be unafraid of a differential equation. Everything else-electrochemistry, transport phenomena, kinetics, reliability, techno-economics-is developed from the ground up, with worked examples at every turn.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HFB5P4D5
• ISBN13: 9798192704196
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"