Researcher touts "practical fuel cells" for portable electronics

There's certainly no shortage or researchers and companies promising to bring fuel cells into everyday gadgets, but Ronald Besser of the Stevens Institute of Technology seems to think he has a system that can stand out from that pack. According to MIT's Technology Review, Besser's proposed system consists of a cylindrical design with "combustor" at the center that facilitates all the necessary reactions to convert methanol into hydrogen. Apparently, that design not only allows for the fuel cells to be made smaller, but more efficient as well. While it seems to still just be on the drawing board, Besser says the system could eventually allow for laptops to run for upwards of 50 hours, and could be made small enough to power other portable electronics as well. In the meantime, however, you may want to keep an eye on some of the systems a littler closer to reality.

[Loonie @ Aug 27th 2007 5:33PM]

I love the idea of being able to run my laptop for a good and sizable chunk of hours, but I would assume any item sporting such a power source would not be allowed anywhere near any passenger aircraft.

[ethana2 @ Aug 27th 2007 7:41PM]

If they're not going to let you use a laptop with one of these, they dang well better get outlets into those planes. And WiFi/Max

And if they pull that "please swipe your card...", then, well... I'll make a point to stick to roads and watercraft, or not travel. They piss me off already.

I like the idea, though. I think the trick is to make an external power protocol like USB. Maybe a USB cell with a separate line for power, at worst. Whoever made USB was seems to have been thinking along the lines of "512k ought to be enough for anybody". Don't cap the speed. Scale or die. You can't make it universal if you don't make it viable.

[Emceay @ Aug 27th 2007 6:08PM]

Wow, that design looks ripe for the battery companies to seamlessly sneak onto the market for $20/pack.

[Israeli Pride @ Aug 27th 2007 6:27PM]

Maybe someday I will be able to play Civilization2 on my Laptop during the duration of a long flight, oh yeah, 50 hours!

[ethana2 @ Aug 27th 2007 7:46PM]

I think a plane would be a peaceful place to do some blender animation ;)

[Israeli Pride @ Aug 27th 2007 9:57PM]

Nice, damn those frogs!!!

[jimmyfinch @ Aug 27th 2007 7:37PM]

I don't want to play the skeptic....

Safety: Methanol is poisonous and burns (like other alcohols) with an invisible flame.

Feasibility: To liberate the Hydrogen passively, Methanol must oxidize a metal, such as aluminum.
This produces a methoxide salt, hydrogen, and A LOT of heat. I cannot imagine this reaction being carefully controlled on a small, mobile scale.

You think we will have battery explosion and fire problems now?

[ethana2 @ Aug 27th 2007 7:43PM]

=========fwwoooooshhhh=======
"Dude, your laptop is on fire!!!"
"No, it's supposed to do that. Here, let me put the exhaust manifold back on..."

What we need is these /and/ batteries. Although I must admit, I'd rather have a hand crank and a battery.

[Dennis @ Aug 27th 2007 7:57PM]

are these rechargeable?
or do u have to keep buying more every 50 hours?

[Jim@FuelCellIntel @ Aug 27th 2007 10:42PM]

Everybody and their brother (from Samsung and Panasonic through Toshiba, Hitachi and all cell phone makers are somewhere close to developing commercial DMFC - direct methanol fuel cells. This is just another topology which might be even better. Methanol cartridges were approved for international air travel as of 1/1/07 and US manaufacturer Jadoo is selling them for high end (professional) video products. They are essentially safer than batteries. Don't drink the methanol (fuel is methanol solution similar to windshield washer fluid).

[Rik @ Aug 28th 2007 3:00AM]

A DMFC is probably what you want in these kinds of applications, because also stuffing a reformer in such a small unit makes matters more complicated than needed. I was doing some experiments on a DMFC setup earlier this year in the problem is not so much getting the concept too work but getting it in a small passive (no pumps, preheating, whatever) package that also shake proof. For such a unit to even start up very good kinetics are required (room temperature isn't excatlly ideal)

[slyecho @ Aug 28th 2007 11:26AM]

I have a feeling that these methanol cartridges are going to become just as bad as printer cartridges: expensive and incompatible.