Analysis of Lead Acid Battery and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies

This report provides a comparative analysis of lead acid batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. It begins by detailing the construction and functioning of lead acid batteries, including their components (container, plates, active material, separators, and terminals) and the electrochemical reactions involved during charging and discharging. The report then explores hydrogen fuel cells, outlining their construction (electrolyte, anode, and cathode) and operational principles, including the oxidation of hydrogen at the anode and the reduction of oxygen at the cathode. The report also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each technology, particularly focusing on safety, environmental impact, and power supply capabilities. Finally, the report concludes by emphasizing the efficiency and power supply characteristics of lead acid batteries.

Running head: EXTENDED RESPONSE TASK 1
Extended Response Task on Lead Acid Battery versus Hydrogen Fuel Cell
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Lead Acid Battery
Construction of the lead acid battery
The battery has five major components, which include the container, plates, active material,
separators, and the battery terminals. The container of the battery is its outer part and it can be
composed of any type strong type of insulator including lead lined wood, bituminous
compound rubber, plastic, hard rubber, and ebonite. The material should not be prone to
collision by the electrolytes and it serves to prevent the discharge of the electrolyte (Jackey,
2007). It should not also discharge impurities that might affect the electrolyte. In this case, the
electrolyte is sulfuric acid (H2SO4).
The plates as the second component of the battery and they are always of diverse design. They
are designed as a form of a grind where lead is the active material. The grinds are always
designed in such manner that they can conduct electricity and at the same time distribute the
current equally on the active material. If this notion is not observed, there is the likelihood that
the active material will become loose and eventually fall out. In most cases, the negative grid is
usually made lighter as they are not essential in uniform conduction of the available current.
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The third components are the active materials, which are involved in the chemical reaction
within the battery. Chemical reactions occur both during charging of the battery. The active
material includes sulfuric acid, which is used as the electrolyte. The acids should be dilute and
the concentration of the electrolyte should to maintain at 31% of sulfuric acid for optimum
operation of the battery. The second active material is lead peroxide (PbO2) which is the
positive active material (Bindner et al. 2005). It is usually dark chocolate in color. The third
active material is sponge lead, which forms the negative active materials. It has an almost grey
color.
The fourth components are the separators. This are thin sheets of insulating materials that are
placed between the plates for the purpose of separating the two plates. They might be made
of porous rubber, Matts of glass, treated lead wood, or glass fiber.
The last components are the battery terminals, which are either positive or negative. They are
used in charging and discharging the battery by providing an external contact.
Functioning of the battery
The principle working of the battery is rather simple and straightforward and it starts when
sulfuric acid is dissolved to form the electrolyte. In this regard, when the acid is dissolved
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dissociation occur through the process of hydrolysis to form positively charged hydrogen ions
and negative sulfate ions. The ions are allowed to move freely.
H2SO4 (l) → H+ (aq) + HSO4− (aq)
During the charging process of the battery, the battery is connected to a direct current.
Hydrogen ions since they are positively charged move to the anode or the electrodes that are
connected to the negative terminal. On the other hand, the sulfate ions move to the cathode. At
the anode, oxygen is formed which react with the lead metal to form lead peroxide (PbO2) and
at the cathode sulfuric acid is formed. In this regard, the cathode plate remains unchanged
while the lead anode gets converted to lead peroxide (Barsali, &Ceraolo, 2002). Therefore,
when fully charged the cathode is lead while the anode is lead peroxide. The charging process
is as shown below.
Pb → Pb2+ + 2e−
PbO2 + 4H+ + 2e –→Pb2+ + 2H2O
During the discharging process, the electrons flow in the opposite direction. In this case, the
hydrogen ions in the electrolyte move to the positively charged plate and they reduced to a
hydrogen atom (Cruden & Gair, 2006). The atom reacts with the PbO2 to form Lead Sulfate,
which is a white compound. The equation is as shown below
For negative plate reaction we have
Pb(s) + HSO−4 (aq) → PbSO4(s) + H+ (aq) + 2e−
For Positive plate, we have:
PbO2(s) + HSO−4 (aq) + 3H+ (aq) + 2e− → PbSO4(s) + 2H2O (l)
The overall reaction for discharging becomes
Pb(s) + PbO2(s) + 2H2SO4 (aq) → 2PbSO4(s) + 2H2O (l)
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On the other hand, the sulfate ions move to the cathode and reach with the lead metal form
lead sulfate. During the subsequent recharging process, the hydrogen ions move to the cathode
and they accept electrons to form hydrogen atom. The formed atoms then attacks the lead
sulfate at the cathode to form lead and sulfuric acid as shown in the equation below
On the hand, the sulfate ions move to the anode gives two electrons forming a radical of
sulfate. The radical then reacts with PbSO4-at the anode to form Pb and H2SO4 as shown in the
equation below
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Below is the revisable reaction for the charging and recharging of the battery
Construction of hydrogen fuel cell
Hydrogen fuel cell is the one that readily converts the stored chemical energy from a fuel into
electric energy through an electrochemical reaction of an oxidizing agent such as oxygen and a
hydrogen fuel (Dicks & Rand, 2018). The basic components of the hydrogen fuel cell are the
electrolyte, an anode, and a cathode as shown in the figure below
Functioning of the hydrogen fuel cell
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Naturally, there is always a driving that causes oxygen gas to reach with hydrogen gas to form
water. However, in a hydrogen fuel cell, this notion is prevented by an electrolyte that
separates the oxidant from the fuel. In this case, hydrogen is the fuel and oxygen is the oxidant.
The electrolyte does not only act as a barrier but also permits the transport of ions. At the
anode, hydrogen gas is oxidized to form protons and electrons as shown in the half equation
below
Reaction at the Anode: 2H2 + 2O2− → 2H2O + 4e−
The hydrogen ion formed then migrates to the cathode and react to form water as shown in the
half equation below
The reaction at the Cathode: O2 + 4e− → 2O2−
The overall equation of the whole process is shown below
Overall Cell Reaction: 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O
Problems still to be solved with hydrogen fuel cell use
Advantages and disadvantages of the lead-acid battery compared to hydrogen fuel cell
One of the advantage of the acid battery is that it safer to use by the users in regard to the
chemical component that are used in the two batteries. Notably, lead acid battery contains lead
plates and dilutes sulfuric acid, which is relatively friendly to the user. However, hydrogen fuel
cell contains hydrogen and oxygen gas which burn explosively when ignited (Hua & Lin,
2000).Therefore, in case of a failure the cell can be rather dangerous. On the other hand, lead
acid cell are more disadvantageous when it comes to environmental concerns comparative to
the hydrogen fuel cell. Lead used in the battery is among the heavy metal and when not
properly disposed the lead can find itself into water bodies and other areas (Blomen &
Mugerwa, 2013). The consequential results are lead poisoning, which can be rather dangerous
to human health. However, there have been increased efforts to remedy the effect of the
batteries through recycling the environmental concern is still and issue.
Environmental Impacts of Hydrogen Fuel Cell
The Hydrogen fuel cells are a reliable efficient quiet and clean source of quality electric power.
Hydrogen is used as a fuel to produce water electricity as tits product. The hydrogen, which is
an environment friendly gas, is used to drive the electrochemical cell. Hydrogen is in abundant
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and is obtained from fossil hydrocarbon, water, and biomass. The by-product and elements
used in hydrogen cell is environment friendly (McDonald, 2006).
In terms of power supply, the lead acid batteries are more effective as they can supply large
amount of energy for a long time
Conclusion
In conclusion, considering the properties of the lead acid battery discussed above, more so
banking on its efficiency, power supply, and storage, it is the most recommended battery to use
(Manwell, 1993). Much of the alleged misunderstanding with all categories’ battery users, and
in precise for power sports aficionados is mostly because of variety of construction techniques
used in construction of lead acid batteries. Even though for the greatest part, the
electrochemical function of these differently constructed lead acid batteries is alike, many
manufacturers commend that the lead acid batteries be applied in diverse uses and that they be
charged by slightly not the same techniques.
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References
Barsali, S., & Ceraolo, M. (2002). Dynamical models of lead-acid batteries: implementation
issues. IEEE Transactions on energy conversion, 17(1), 16-23.
Bindner, H., Cronin, T., Lundsager, P., Manwell, J. F., Abdulwahid, U., & Baring-Gould, I.
(2005). Lifetime modelling of lead acid batteries. Benchmarking, 12, 82.
Blomen, L. J., & Mugerwa, M. N. (Eds.). (2013). Fuel cell systems. Springer Science &
Business Media.
Dicks, A., & Rand, D. A. J. (2018). Fuel cell systems explained. Wiley.
Dürr, M., Cruden, A., Gair, S., & McDonald, J. R. (2006). Dynamic model of a lead acid
battery for use in a domestic fuel cell system. Journal of power sources, 161(2), 1400-1411.
Hua, C. C., & Lin, M. Y. (2000). A study of charging control of lead-acid battery for electric
vehicles. In Industrial Electronics, 2000. ISIE 2000. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE
International Symposium on (Vol. 1, pp. 135-140). IEEE.
Jackey, R. A. (2007). A simple, effective lead-acid battery modeling process for electrical
system component selection (No. 2007-01-0778). SAE Technical Paper.
Manwell, J. F., & McGowan, J. G. (1993). Lead acid battery storage model for hybrid energy
systems. Solar Energy, 50(5), 399-405.
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