Fuel cell electric engines

Fuel-cell based engines / Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV)

A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity. A fuel cells needs a continuous source of fuel (e.g. hydrogen) and oxygen. So a fuel cell is not a battery.

The electricity used by an electric engine (automobile, bus, bicycle, scooter, quad and boat) can be deliverd by a fuell cell instead of battery. So the fuel cell in a FCEV-vehicle generate electricity to power the motor, generally using compressed hydrogen and oxygen from the air.

It's also possible to make use of formic acid (also methanoic acid) in fuel cell electric vehicles. Formic acid has the chemical formula HCOOH (also HCO2H) and has the advantage that it is not nessary to compress. So formic acid is easy to store. Also it's easy to convert to hydrogen in the moment that it is nessary by the electric engine.