Sharp reveals world's most densely powerful methanol fuel cell -- still can't buy it

We've been huffing the vaporous promise of methanol fuel cells for so long now that we sold all our furniture and live in a cardboard box. Nevertheless, Sharp's in a tizzy over its direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) prototype. Sharp's cell is able to provide 0.3 Watts of power per cubic centimeter making it the world's most powerful DMFC cell for its size. Availability? Sharp has no idea but "it won't be commercialized soon," according to a spokesperson. Kudos for honesty, but that gnawing angst for a refillable battery replacement for traditional lithium-ion batteries continues to taunt us.

P.S. Sharp didn't offer any photos with the press release so we tossed in an old Toshiba concept just to annoy them.

[Via PCWorld]

[Karim Lahlou @ May 15th 2008 9:26AM]

Wait...why does the bottle have "Toshiba" written on it?

[Mike @ May 15th 2008 9:31AM]

rtfa

[Seth @ May 15th 2008 9:32AM]

read the PS below the article and maybe you'll find out...

[slarity @ May 15th 2008 9:31AM]

...read the article

I dont get why everyone is looking forward to this for portable devices, is there something horrible with lith-ion that I dont know?

[Oinquer @ May 15th 2008 9:35AM]

@mike

HAHAHAHA Good one...but i really like more the rtfm =P

[Stem $ell @ May 15th 2008 10:20AM]

It's not actually methanol in the bottle, but rather the 'suddenly affordable' distillate of 1,000,000 blended HD-DVD players and disks....

[Oinquer @ May 15th 2008 9:35AM]

@slarity

hmm methanol gets you drunk? if yes you got your answer

[Mike @ May 15th 2008 9:45AM]

if by 'gets you drunk' you mean 'causes brain damage' then yes, it gets you drunk.

[wjousts @ May 15th 2008 10:56AM]

@Mike: And causes blindness.

Nasty, nasty stuff.

[Luigi193 @ May 15th 2008 9:38AM]

You guys should start a feature where you purposely try to make giant companies angry...

But then again, they probably wouldn't want to work with you anymore...

Never mind

[guerilla779 @ May 15th 2008 12:16PM]

specially japanese companies

[lee @ May 15th 2008 9:43AM]

Methanol gets you blind and mad. Ethanol gets you drunk. Please, don't confuse the two.

[duxxyuk @ May 15th 2008 10:00AM]

Depends on how much you drink :-)

[j_g_puff @ May 15th 2008 10:09AM]

@ dxxyuk

Exactly. Ethanol can get you blind and mad too.

[NHAnimator @ May 15th 2008 9:44AM]

Yeah, and I've got a flying car that will revolutionize world travel. It has zero emissions, intelligent avoidance detection, and if it senses you are free-falling, nanoparticles in the ship's hull instantly coat the surface with a Nerf-like material.

But "it won't be commercialized soon". So sorry.

[Timmy @ May 15th 2008 9:53AM]

Hmmm, do you think these little Bombs waiting to happen will be allowed on airplanes?

[Seth @ May 15th 2008 9:59AM]

They wont let you take iPods or other electronic devices on planes now. Fill them up with methanol and you won't get past the chemical sniffers at the doorway to the airport.

But the pilot can still drink the methanol before he boards... thats never been a problem...

[erislover @ May 15th 2008 10:03AM]

If all someone has been waiting for is something flammable to bring on a plane, they need to wake up and examine all the flammable crap one can bring on a plane.

So, yes.

[duxxyuk @ May 15th 2008 9:59AM]

I agree with what you say about the _long_ wait however I suspect that Sharp will be the ones laughing... Can Toshiba's put out a new product after their HD-DVD fiasco ? :-)

[Dan R @ May 15th 2008 10:24AM]

Methanol (wood alcohol) kills you. Isopropyl alcohol (byproduct of inproper distillation) makes you blind and mad. Ethanol just "gets you drunk"

[bhtooefr @ May 15th 2008 10:46AM]

Actually, methanol makes you go blind before killing you.

[Ethan @ May 15th 2008 10:47AM]

Sometimes it just seems these tech companies just decide on something to have a pissing match about and go. I can't see an implementation for this other than very special circumstances.

[Genyus @ May 15th 2008 11:11AM]

And I can see why you're not running your own tech company...

[SimbaDogg @ May 15th 2008 11:22AM]

this is amazing...if these can scale it, and keep the efficiency up....a unit the size of PS3 would provide a lil over 2600 watts of juice. That's a hell of a lot for something that small...

[Bigsby @ May 15th 2008 1:50PM]

are you sure about that? Just taking a quick glance, 0.3 watts per cubic centimetre, if you're going to have this in a car, which has a 3 litre engine, 3000 cubic centimetres, that comes out to 900 watts, which isn't much.

I may be wrong, I just woke up.

[NuFsAiD @ May 15th 2008 11:57AM]

ROFLCOPTER, Toshiba makes a good bottle though, no denying that

[dhughes @ May 15th 2008 12:39PM]

Isn't pure methanol incredibly toxic? Even in small amounts inhalation of it or getting it on your skin can easily lead to poisoning which, obviously, has some very bad side effects such as blindness.

I wonder how are they going to prevent this, it seems like a huge liability issue. I see in the picture it looks like a closed system but you know some people are going to mess with the stuff once they get a bottle of it.

[NakedOldGuy @ May 15th 2008 3:10PM]

yeah... remember all those exploding L-ION problems? Ever burn methanol? I remember doing that in a physics class during highschool... my teacher put a tiny tiny cap full into a big 5 gallon water cooler jug and tossed in a match.. it shot a bright blue flame about 6 feet in the air from the top.

Also you could always just go "whoooops" and drop a few drops into someone's drink at a bar. Blindness aho!

Wow the capabilities to cause mischief with just a slightly more power dense system is great!

[The 3rd Hot Dog @ May 15th 2008 1:40PM]

I guess I'm not understanding. Let's pretend I have a fuel-cell-cell-phone (cell). When my phone dies, do I unscrew the top of the fuel cell and pour in more methanol? I feel like I'm missing something important.

[Fall-Apart @ May 15th 2008 4:56PM]

Basically, yes - you don't have to carry around batteries or chargers, just a methanol reservoir. As more devices come to be powered through methanol fuel cells, you'd cut down on the number of accessories to carry with you.

[GeorgeK @ May 15th 2008 6:16PM]

You cannot use or take it on a plane!!!!

[thedesolate1 @ May 15th 2008 9:51PM]

As long as they arent made by sony i see no reason why they shouldnt be released by the end of this year. lol They should be ready for primetime already after all these years.