[ajax0604]

I've been reading about the alkaline fuel cell and the oxidation equation in my textbook was written as:
2H₂ (g) + 4OH^- (aq)  4H₂O (l) + 4e^-

I was wondering why the coefficients haven't been simplified when they could have been. When I looked up other references, the same coefficients were used. This seems to contradict what I've learnt about equation writing in Chemistry so far. Thank you.

[Hunter2]

It is used to fit with the reduction part at the cathode, it needs 4 electrons:

http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.green-planet-solar-energy.com/images/fuel-cell-reactions.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.green-planet-solar-energy.com/hydrogen-fuel-cells.html&h=441&w=413&tbnid=QE81BgrR1KSqPM:&zoom=1&tbnh=90&tbnw=84&usg=__kvZk1BNbT-Iso0Dqh0kQo7Bg_rk=&docid=P7OmzF3_Pm377M&client=firefox-beta&sa=X&ei=xwDAU7TjLoKb0wXcz4GwDA&ved=0CD4Q9QEwBQ&dur=412

Of course you can simplyfy the reaction:

H₂ + 2 OH^- => 2 H₂O + 2 e^-