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William W. Jacques was an American electrical engineer and chemist who designed in 1896 a very unusual fuel cell operated on solid (coal) fuel named by him a “carbon battery”. While the majority of fuel cells utilize gas (usually H 2) or liquid (eg, ethanol) fuel, the “carbon battery” designed by Jacques was based on a carbon electrode operated as the fuel.

The battery consisted of 100 cells connected in series (Figure 1a) and placed on top of a furnace that kept the electrolyte temperature between 400–500 C (Figure 1b). The produced electrical output was 16 A at 90 V. Based on the experimental results, Jacques claimed ca. 82% efficiency for his carbon battery, but careful analysis considering the heat energy used in the furnace and the energy used to pump air (O 2 was an oxidizer) resulted in a much lower battery efficiency of ca. 8%.