Week 2 Challenge

1) Types of Fuel Cells and their specifications

2) Comparison between battery types like lithium ion, lead acid, Nickel Cadmium, Ultracapacitor, fuel cell

The above figure shows the comparison of energy densities of batteries.

We see that,

- The Ultracapacitor has very high power density but very low energy density as result of which it can give short bursts of energy.

- The lead acid battery has low energy density and power density as result of which a lot of them are needed for high energy applications. They are generally used in low voltage applications.

- The Nickel Cadmium battery and Nickel Metal Hydride battery have higher power densities in comparison to the lead acid battery.

- The lithium ion battery has an energy density ranging from 100-265 Wh/kg along with a high power density making it very suitable for automotive applications.

- The fuel cell has very high energy density but low power power density which come with challenges of its own like storage of fuel within the car among others.