**1.1. Timeline for fuel cell development**

Fuel cell was first discovered by William Grove in 1839 when he thought it possible to produce electric current through reverse electrolysis by combining hydrogen and oxygen together. This awareness made scientists throughout the 19th century to conduct several studies until Francis Thomas Bacon, a British scientist, worked on developing alkaline fuel cells in 1958. This technology was utilized for NASA Apollo spacecraft program and was licensed to Pratt and Whitney. Through the research work of Thomas Grubb and Leonard Niedrach in 1960, polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) technology was invented at General Electric (GE). A small fuel cell was further developed in the mid-1960s by General Electric for US Army Signal Corps and US electronic division of the Navy's Bureau of ships. In the year 1970, GE developed a novel water-electrolysis technology for undersea life support leading to the US Navy Oxygen Generating Plant. The British Royal Navy adopted this technology in the early 1980s for their submarine fleet. In the 1990s, Los Alamos National Lab and Texas A&M University researched different ways of reducing platinum load required for PEM cells.

#### **1.2. Definition of fuel cell**

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (e.g., hydrogen, methanol, etc.) and an oxidant (air or pure oxygen) in the presence of a catalyst into electricity, heat, and water[4].

Economy benefits of fuel cells are possible as a result of its fantastic flexibility and features over conventional energy sources:

**•** Fuel cells produce clean energy through electrochemical conversion of the fuel. Therefore, they are environmentally friendly because of the zero or very low emissions.

