Review – Metallic Bipolar Plates and Their Usage in Energy Conversion Systems

The idea of a fuel cell was first discovered in 1839 by Christian Friedrich Schönbein [64] and William Grove [27]. Independently from each other they provided the foundation for the development of many different kinds of fuel cells. Today’s fuel cells are mostly classified by the type of electrolyte used in the cells. The most common types are polymer electrolyte fuel cells PEFC (developed by William Grubb in 1959), the alkaline fuel cell AFC (developed for the Apollo space Program in the 1960’s), the phosphoric acid fuel cell PAFC (from 1965), the molten carbonate fuel cell MCFC and the solid oxide fuel cells SOFC. The beginnings of SOFC and MCFC can be dated back to the mid 1960’s [23].