# Fuel Cells **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2001, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-cells/59276 "2001-03-24T04:35:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gambit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gambit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gambit)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-cells/59276/1 "2001-03-24T04:35:42Z")
Perhaps someone here will have better information than what I’ve found on the web so far. How difficult would it be to obtain the liquid hydrogen necessary to power a fuel cell? Can this be purchaced from directly from a company? One more question: how much would a small fuel cell designed to power a house cost? My thanks to whoever posts in advance. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-cells/59276/2 "2001-03-24T22:07:53Z")
Good Lord, you don’t buy liquid hydrogen to power a fuel cell. You use alcohol or petroleum or some such product and catalysts in the cell liberate the hydrogen for instant use. Sorry, I don’t know what a house sized one costs, but a little web browsing should tell you. One big enough to power a bus is inexpensive enough that bus services can afford them, at least in some pilot programs. I think a bus needs 10 to 20 times the power that an electrically heated home needs. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-cells/59276/3 "2001-03-24T22:38:30Z")
Check [here](http://gepower.com/microgen/faqs.html) for some answers to your questions. Even though I’m not directly involved with it, my company is doing quite a bit of R&D on fuel cells. If you have any further questions, I’ll ask our fuel cell guru, who holds 5 or 6 patents in fuel cell technology development. Granted, these would be general fuel cell questions I would ask him, nothing of a secret or proprietary nature. Not that we’re doing anything secret anyway. Trust me.