Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
SIR WILLIAM GROVE
Sir William Grove was born in Wales in 1811. He became a
professor of physics at the London Institution in England. He
experimented with different types of batteries. One of these, called
a nitric acid cell battery, was used by the U.S. telegraph industry
in the middle of the nineteenth century. Grove took his research
further, though. He knew that sending an electrical current
through water would split water molecules into hydrogen and
oxygen atoms. He wondered what would happen if the process
was reversed. Grove combined hydrogen and oxygen gases in the
presence of an electrical current. The result? A “gas battery” that
created electricity and water. This was the fi rst fuel cell ever made.
Because of his achievement, Grove is called the “Father of the Fuel
Cell.” Grove died in London in 1896.
Hydrogen and oxygen fl ow into a fuel cell, which converts the chemicals into water, while
also producing electricity.
