Science Saturday-Francis Thomas Bacon Hydrogen Fuel Cell Drive

Charlie Keeble has a rather interesting Science Saturday story that is connected to our support for environmental issues. This week we have a story that shows how a piece of green technology came from Essex that started off as an invention to help NASA take people to the Moon in 1969.

You’ve probably heard of eco cars being powered by hydrogen fuel technology. This is an engine that was first conceived in Essex by an inventor called Francis Thomas Bacon. He was born in December 1904 in Ramsden Hall,Billericay and he is a descendent of the famous Elizabethanphilosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon. He was educated at Eton College and Cambridge University, and was then an apprentice to the Newcastle electrical company C.A. Parsons & Co. Ltd which was owned by the famous engineer Sir Charles Parsons and was strongly influenced by him. From here Bacon took an interest in fuel cells. 

Fuel cells are electrochemical cells that convert the chemical energy of a fuel and an oxidizing agent into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. The most commonly used fuel is hydrogen in gas form, the most common oxidizing agent is oxygen and redox means reduction and oxidisation occurring simultaneously. This is a complicated process to put in wordsand in a few sentences so I have included this video linkexplaining it as a fuel source from Real Engineering, and in this other video link explaining how it came to be used in spacecraft from Scott Manley.

Fuel cells had been developed over a century earlier in 1839 by Sir William Robert Grove. But he only made it as far as an experimental demonstration tool. In 1932 Francis Thomas Bacon decided to look over the technology once again and apply his engineering skills to make fuel cells into a working machine. He experimented by using different materials to generate a more efficient electrical power from the electrolyte. The electrolyte is the component of the battery that separates the atoms in the molecules within the fuel and oxidiser to produce the electricity. One of these changes was using nickel electrodes for conduction and potassium hydroxide in the electrolyte. The fuel cell he developed was an alkaline typethat used a semi permeable barrier that allowed for the free flow of electrons to produce water and electricity more efficiently.

In 1940 Bacon moved to Kings College London and developed a better version of his fuel cell that he proposed to be used in submarines. This one was a double cell that can generate hydrogen and oxygen gasses in one cell, while the other cell could be used as a fuel cell proper. This one had the ability to reverse the process so that it could be used as an electrolyser and fuel cell. The advantage of this is that it could generate breathing air for the crew and produce electricity for the submarine itself. Bacon had effectively created a functioning fuel cell that would be useful to space vehicles nearly 20 years before human spaceflight. 

However Bacon never managed to get his fuel cell in a submarine because of complexities that arose during development. The fuel cell required high operating temperatures and the chemicals it used were very corrosive that it would have made the battery difficult to handle by the submariners. After the war in 1946, Bacon moved his research and development to Cambridge University where he worked with a team to perfect the design. The new fuel cell had a porous nickel sheet, that was a material whose origins wereclassified under the official secrets act, presumably because of it’s use in developing nuclear weapons. This created a more stable interface and made the hydrogen fuel cell much easier and safer to use. The corrosive nature of the chemicals was also improved by replacing the potassium hydroxide with lithium hydroxide in a solution. This made the fuel cell more practical as a power source producing 6 kW of electricity, and it was proven when demonstrated to the public in 1959. 

Among those it was demonstrated to by Francis Thomas Bacon was the aerospace company Marshall of Cambridge, who sponsored it’s appearance. They were keen to develop new technologies that could be used such as hydrogen fuel cells in aerospace research and development. Marshall had connections to NASA and they were also impressed by the machine and they decided to invite Bacon to their facilities to help develop fuel cells for spacecraft Including the Apollo spacecraft to send people to the Moon.

Fuel cells were useful to NASA because they could extend and lengthen the amount of time a space mission would need to last to send humans to the Moon. They could also use the spacecraft’s supplies of oxygen and hydrogen gases and use them to convert those two sources by an electrochemical reaction. This produced water for drinking and electricity for power as by products. US President Richard Nixon invited Francis Thomas Bacon to a reception at the White House and told him; “Without you Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon”. Later Bacon met with the crew of Apollo 11 at a reception in Downing Street and showed him their gratitude for creating the engine that powered their mission to the Moon. 

Later once the Moon programme finished the automobile industry took an interest in hydrogen fuel cells. General Motors had built the Lunar Rover for the Apollo astronauts and they saw that Bacon’s fuel cell would be practical to the automotive industry, as the world started to promote green issues. Since hydrogen fuel cells produce water and electricityas by products, they don’t produce any pollutants like petrol engines do. GM realised that if they built this fuel cell as a carengine and fitted it to a car then it would be a tool to cut down on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. In 1966 they built the world’s first fuel cell electric vehicle called the Chevrolet Electrovan. 

Francis Thomas Bacon had then gone onto become a consultant for energy development companies. He was awarded the OBE for British science in 1967, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1973. In 1976 he co-founded the Royal Academy of Engineering with support from Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh. He passed away in May 1992 leaving behind a legacy as one of Britain’s invisible heroes who helped mankind reach the Moon.

There is however another side to Francis Thomas Bacon’slegacy that I think is equally valuable to the world. He created an invention that has got a crucial application to the eco-technology revolution. Thanks to his hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell cars can be built to be driven carbon emission free. For eco-technology like the hydrogen fuel cell to take off there needs to be a bigger promotion for the engineers of the future and to set their imagination free.