TOSHIBA Fuel Cells for Laptops & Mobiles Soon
Power is limiting factor when it comes to smart-hand-held technologies. Everyone would love not having to worry about recharging their phone for a week, or being able to run their laptop off the battery for a whole working day. Fuel cells may be the panacea for portables, since they have a capacity 10 times greater than they types of batteries currently in use. In terms of raw power output, methanol fuel cells produce 40 times more wattage per liter than lithium-ion batteries.
In Sony’s latest prototype, 10ml of methanol sustained 14 hours of cell phone video play. But it’s a bit bulky and only a hybrid prototype - the new fuel cells aren’t stable enough to stand alone yet. That seems to be what’s got the FAA nervous as well. Although the Department of Transportation will allow the fuel cells to be taken on planes, the FAA is currently conducting multi-scenario ‘flammability-tests’ before giving the final approval.
Interestingly, methanol is environmentally friendly, also called bio-fuel since it can be made from organic waste products. A favorable alternative to the volatile lithium-ion batteries. On the other hand, researchers are looking for an alternative to methanol because it requires an expensive catalyst such as platinum. Such a limitation would keep the cost of production too high to integrate with modern devices, and lack of alternative materials has slowed research. Bringing fuels cells down to the nano-scale may be another solution to this problem since it can greatly increase the surface area of the catalyst exposed. Improved methods of manufacturing are bringing these nano-scale fuel cells closer to production.
The recent developments in fuel-cell technology seem to be the first step towards running things off water. In fact, Samsung is planning to have a cell phone that runs off of water by 2010.
