Fuel Cells and Hybrid Systems, Future of Power Generating Systems

Fossil fuels are exhaustible energy resources that man can not rely on them for a long time. Increasing population urge us to pursue in exhaustible energy resources. On the other extreme, the environment pollution is increasing so rapidly that policy makers have proposed severe laws to protect against pollution and more credits have been devoted to researches in the area of exploiting modern energy resources. As a consequence, development of more efficient and low polluting systems is of great importance. Among these systems, scientists have recently focused on fuel cell as a kind of modern energy systems. This advanced technology not only leads to more efficient and low polluting energy systems, but also with combining fuel cell systems and gas turbines called Hybrid Systems, a new revolution is expected to occur in power generating systems, This may also lead to more focusing on these systems in the areas of research and practice. In this paper, firstly, a review of past applications of fuel cell in power generating systems is provided. Then hybrid systems and their advantages are introduced. Finally some hybrid structures are studied.