Introduction The consequence of burning fossil fuels is well established in their long term impact on climate and global

warming due to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, primary being the CO2 and NOx. The subsequent increase in automobile engine emissions has drawn particular attention among the scientific community, and international governments in light global climate change which alter the weather patterns even. GHG also causes damage to ozone layer and resultant increase in ultraviolet rays at the earths surface. In order to reduce the emissions many researches and experiments are ongoing all around the world to check the feasibility of renewable energy techniques in for power requirements and using alternative fuel. Especially when it comes to automobile industry hydrogen becomes a very popular alternative fuel that produces absolutely zero emission. During the past few decades the concept of a fuel cell has drawn attention as an option of reducing the fossil fuel consumption where greenhouse gas emissions reduces consequently. Since the hydrogen fuel cells are suitable and adoptable for automobiles. The deliver power As long as fuel and air are supplied useful work output can be obtained and they potentially can provide the range capabilities of an internal combustion engine when used in a power system with clean, clear and quiet operation. Therefore, the fundamental benefit of this type of propulsion consists in the possibility to adopt pollution-free electric drive-trains, overcoming the limitations typical of traditional fossil fuel used vehicles. A fuel cell propulsion system operates in hybrid configuration with an electric energy storage system (batteries and/or super capacitors), in order to take advantage of the best attributes of both power sources. In fact, against the driving range capabilities of fuel cells, batteries and super capacitors are characterized by defined and limited energy storage, but are able to deliver large peak current without the limitations due to the dynamic behavior of auxiliary sub-systems of the fuel cell generator. Fuel cells and storage systems, therefore, complement each other in a hybrid configuration where they supply the electric drive through an electric parallel connection. Suitable management strategies have to be implemented to optimize the energy flows within the overall power train, as function of power size and road mission of the vehicle, with the goal of achieving peak acceleration power, long range and recharge capabilities. The environmental issues concerning the emissions originally arose from protecting local air quality in the vicinity of fossil fuel and it has grown to global environmental issues. The reduction in GHG emissions due to the burning of fossil fuel is the major goal of Green Transportation. The Sustainability goal is to explore both the technological solutions to increase the efficiency of transportation as well as to investigate alternatives such as fuel cells.

Fuel cell history in brief Fuel cell principle was first discovered by William Grove in 1839. Grove used four large cells, each containing hydrogen and oxygen, to produce electric power which was to produce electric power which was then used to split the water in the smaller upper cell. Commercial potential first demonstrated by NASA in the 1960s with the usage of fuel cells on the Gemini and Apollo space flights. However, these fuel cells were very expensive fuel cells were very expensive. Fuel cell research and development has been actively taking place since the 1970s, resulting in many commercial applications ranging from low cost portable systems for cell phones and laptops to large power systems for buildings. Hydrogen fuel cell Quite simply, a fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy, water, and heat through electrochemical reactions. A fuel cell is like a battery in that it generates electricity from an electrochemical reaction. Both batteries and fuel cells convert chemical energy into electrical energy and also, as a by-product of this process, into heat. However, a battery holds a closed store of energy within it and once this is depleted the battery must be discarded, or recharged by using an external supply of electricity to drive the electrochemical reaction in the reverse direction.

A fuel cell, on the other hand, uses an external supply of chemical energy and can run indefinitely, as long as it is supplied with a source of hydrogen and a source of oxygen (usually air). The source of hydrogen is generally referred to as the fuel and this gives the fuel cell its name, although there is no combustion involved. Oxidation of the hydrogen instead takes place electrochemically in a very efficient way. During oxidation, hydrogen atoms react with oxygen atoms to form water; in the process electrons are released and flow through an external circuit as an electric current.

Working principle A single fuel cell consists of an electrolyte sandwiched between two electrodes, an anode and a cathode. Bipolar plates on either side of the cell help distribute gases and serve as current collectors. In a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell, which is widely regarded as the most promising for light-duty transportation, hydrogen gas flows through channels to the anode, where a catalyst causes the hydrogen molecules to separate into protons and electrons. The membrane allows only the protons to pass through it. While the protons are conducted through the membrane to the other side of the cell, the stream of negatively-charged electrons follows an external circuit to the cathode. This flow of electrons is electricity that can be used to do work, such as power a motor. On the other side of the cell, air flows through channels to the cathode. When the electrons return from doing work, they react with oxygen in the air and the hydrogen protons (which have moved through the membrane) at the cathode to form water. This union is an exothermic reaction, generating heat that can be used outside the fuel cell.

Fuel cells can vary from tiny devices producing only a few watts of electricity, right up to large power plants producing megawatts. All fuel cells are based around a central design using two electrodes separated by a solid or liquid electrolyte that carries electrically charged particles between them. A catalyst is often used to speed up the reactions at the electrodes. Fuel cell types are generally classified

according to the nature of the electrolyte they use. Each type requires particular materials and fuels and is suitable for different applications. Depending on the application, a fuel cell stack may contain only a few or as many as hundreds of individual cells layered together. This scalability makes fuel cells ideal for a wide variety of applications, from laptop computers (20-50 W) to homes (1-5 kW), vehicles (50-125 kW), and central power generation (1-200 MW or more).

Suitability of hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles Fuel cells directly convert the chemical energy in hydrogen to electricity, with pure water and potentially useful heat as the only byproducts. Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are not only pollution-free, but they can also have more than two times the efficiency of traditional combustion technologies. A conventional combustion-based power plant typically generates electricity at efficiencies of 33-35%, while fuel cell systems can generate electricity at efficiencies up to 60% (and even higher with cogeneration). The gasoline engine in a conventional car is less than 20% efficient in converting the chemical energy in gasoline into power that moves the vehicle, under normal driving conditions. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which use electric motors, are much more energy efficient and use 40-60% of the fuels energy corresponding to more than a 50% reduction in fuel consumption, compared to a conventional vehicle with a gasoline internal combustion engine. In addition, fuel cells operate quietly, have fewer moving parts, and are well suited to a variety of applications. Fuel cell vehicles are being developed because they promise to meet the requirements expected of automobiles in a market increasingly constrained by environmental and resource limitations.

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According to the above figure, the fuel tank is filled with hydrogen gas and extracting hydrogen is a major problem when it comes to vehicles. Ultimate attraction of hydrogen is that it is a carbon-free energy carrier which, if produced from renewable resources, offers the potential of an energy system with zero greenhouse gas emissions. If vehicular hydrogen supply systems were initially developed using natural gas, for example, they ultimately might be converted to hydrogen supplied from renewable resources.