Customer Reviews

Fuel Cell Projects for the Evil Genius

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This text provides an exceptionally low level of information on a rather diverse and exciting field. I realize that I am probably not the target audience of this work, but it really could have stood to add some information digestible above the 8th-grade reading level. Secondarily, it reads like a product catalog for [...] with poorly written "projects" attached to the product descriptions.

I realize that a two star rating on Amazon.com is a rather scathing appraisal, but I feel it is appropriate in this case. I understand that this is a recently released book, indeed my copy is a first edition. Even considering that, this book should have never made it into print in its current condition. Typos and blatant errors infest the entire work. Captions are attached to the wrong pictures, pictures have text cut off of them, in fact entire paragraphs repeat the same information contained in the previous paragraph. Frankly it speaks to me of markedly poor copy editing (or in my opinion, no editing whatsoever) and provides a fine example of the failure of companies like McGraw-Hill to continue their production of quality material.

This book served as a nice introduction to fuels cells. It explains the basic concepts and how to build your own simple fuel cells without getting overly technical. It covers a lot of the different fuel cells types. I had previously only known about PEM and methanol fuel cells and this book has interested me into doing further research on microbial fuel cells.

My one issue with the book is with the part numbers listed for items from Fuel Cell Store (which the author mentioned working with to write this book). The part numbers listed were not always able to be found on the website. The alkaline fuel cell from the book is one example, it is no longer available from the store. I was able to find the manufacturer's website and they said they are no longer making it. For a book that was just published this seemed odd and these errors should been caught during proofreading. These errors are more of an issue with the earlier chapters and with experiments that most people are probably going to skip anyway to get to the more interesting ones.

I was very disappointed in this book as I was lead to believe that it held practical uses rather than the "model car" projects. The book index should have stated that the projects were all for model cars, etc. i would like to get my money back!!

Bought this book with a keen interest to learn all I can about fuel cells and experimenting hands on is a great way to make it soak in. Most of the experiments in this book are only halfway explained. The required acids for example are left out of one, except where later is stated not to use a certain acid because its dangerous. After being left to dry on the first half of the book I stopped. Maybe later after I find other fuel cell source to answer my questions I'll finish this one.

The book shows the principles behind fuel cell devices using interesting experiments. It presents, for my surprise, a procedure to make a membrane electrode assembly using home avaliable equipaments. It has a rigorous scientific aproach about the theme (hydrogen and fuel cells) but using an understandable way to show it over the text. I really recommend this book for teachers to initiate their students into the fascinating world of fuel cells

This book has obviously been written in too much of a hurry as it has important details left out, yet the pages are filled with useless items such as photos of a pack of table salt to show the reader what that looks like so they can buy it in the supermarket. It also does not describe how to make certain items for the projects, but instead refers to a part number from The Fuel Cell Shop. A very frustrating book to work with and I object to paying for what amounts to an advert for the authors favourite shop.

It was very exciting to have all of this knowledge available, easy to understand and made it fun too.

I was looking for info for a project of mine and was unaware that the contents are aimed at children with well heeled parents. It has basic facts and a wealth of commercial kit tie-ins that would lead to nothing very usable save an improved balance sheet for the company. Avoid.