8/14/2019 BOOK REVIEW: Fuel Cell Projects for the Evil Genius by Gavin D. J. Harper: Reviewed By Mike Koefman, Campaig…

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Book Review: Fuel Cell Projects for the Evil Genius by Gavin D. J. Harper.

Review by Mike Koefman, Campaign for a Hydrogen Economy, Manchester M4 7HR,UK.http://www.hydrogeneconomy.org.uk/

REVIEW Intriguing though the technology of fuel cells may appear, and thisvolume does a fine introductory job of elucidating its main aspects,even more captivating is the style and character of the writer, theyoung and energetic Gavin Harper who seems to have covered anextraordinary amount of scientific ground in a very few years.With obvious joy in his appreciation of the present state and futurepromise of this technology, he manages both to instruct and to tell astory throughout the book under review. The instruction concerns

the nitty gritty of fuel cells, their operation and the unavoidablecomplexities of the underlying electrochemistry, whilst the story linetakes the reader gently but firmly through the origins and history of hydrogen, fuel cells and electrolysers.

 The reader-friendliness and occasional sheer informality of Harper's language in no wayfunction as a cover for lazy design. On the contrary, it is clear that very careful thinking hasgone into the organisation of the text, with the reader being carefully inducted into all thehydrogen basics before fuel cells themselves are tackled. Interestingly, Harper eschews the

traditional first view of fuel cells: the PEM which so many of us know something about.Instead, with Chapter 6 he dives into the alkaline fuel cell, with exemplary explanations anddiagrams, leaving the PEM until later. This reader found this to be a very sound approach,and a convincing hook onto which to hang some necessary electrochemistry.Of course, the crucial feature of this volume is the quality and abundance of the projects 

which form the basis of the teaching (and self-teaching) concerning hydrogen and fuel cells. There is plenty of good stuff here, although some readers may not find it as easy as theywould like to access the equipment which they will need it is not always clear whetherHarper is writing for a European or North American readership, or both thus leading tosome sourcing implications.One of the charms of this book is the generosity which the author shows to so many otherworkers in the hydrogen field this is not a hydro-ego trip, but a large-hearted, witty,cheerful and accurate survey of the art and promise of hydrogen and fuel cells. More please,Mr Harper!

8/14/2019 BOOK REVIEW: Fuel Cell Projects for the Evil Genius by Gavin D. J. Harper: Reviewed By Mike Koefman, Campaig…

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Of course, a reviewer is supposed to find niggles, and of course, there are a few, thoughnone sufficiently grave to deter the serious reader. The presence of one or two unbalancedequations, and a graph axis wrongly labelled, are small drawbacks indeed to the thread sointelligently maintained throughout the book, with authorial insight directing the readerfurther on, or further back, for answers to the questions which the writer so adroitlyanticipates.

In short, both author and publisher should be congratulated. Let the Hydrogen Economycommence!