MTI Micro shows off universal fuel cell charger with removable cartridge
By Donald Melanson 
posted December 11th 2008 1:03AM
posted December 11th 2008 1:03AM
As you may or may not have noticed, the folks at MTI Micro seem to be plenty convinced that fuel cells will eventually power all manner of devices, and they're now taking things one step further with their new Mobion universal fuel cell charger that, yes, promises to provide power to any device in the entire universe (with a USB port). To add a bit more practicality to the equation, the charger makes use of removable (and disposable) cartridges, which each provide 25 watt-hours of power, or roughly enough to fully charge the average cellphone more than ten times. While it's only in prototype form at the moment, the company says that the final product should be available by the end of 2009, although it's not making any promises about a price just yet.
[Via Planetary Gear]
[Via Planetary Gear]
Fuel cells replacing batteries....
.....interesting.....
Just finished an essay on fuel cells... Bah humbug Engadget! Bringing stuff related to my schoolwork into your blog, blasphemy I say!
Those reflections are spot on!
Seems like a step towards renewable energy, which is an excellent thing. Plus anything to get us away from traditional batteries and the nasty stuff they're made of is great too.
1) Renewable energy is about production, not distribution.
2) "nasty stuff"? Is that like how the public thinks "chemicals" are bad? Lithium Ion and Zinc Air batteries do not contain dangerous materials...
3) How exactly is this greener when they are calling the fuel cell cartridges disposable? It appears they are made out of plastic, so now instead of batteries that can be recycled, we would have people using and throwing away billions of pounds of petroleum-based plastic cases.. That would hardly be environmentally sound...
yay! but disposable?? come on have it refillable!!! that way less waste.
Charge my touch pro 10x I'll be a happy SOB especially camping or in emergency situations... Because unlike the phones performance the battery sucks!
Too bad phones don't just run on these, 10x the battery life would be amazing! I suppose it would be too hard to keep the form factor down though, huh?
Disposable? I know they want to make a buck but thats just sad. I really don't see the novelty either when my netbook's battery, when the laptop is completely shutoff, will charge my Nintendo DS (usb ds charger off dealextreme), MP3 player, and cell phone all at once multiple times.
It also seems fairly ludicrous that I'd bring that anywhere and not just a smaller standard AC outlet. if I'mm camping I'd rather rely on a small solar panel, battery, charge controller.
sexiest. batterylikething. ever.
heu... we try to get rid of fuel in cars for a more green solution but here its just the opposite..? can someone explain please cause in my book, fuel is less cool than electricity.
Last time I checked, fuel cells don't release tons of greenhouse gases into the environment.
btw, why won't engadget remember me? I have to type my email and password every time. And yes I click remember me. I use my iPhone. So maybe there's the problem...
Yes, it most likely is that iphone... You should try a pocket pc :) Love my touch pro, 3rd ppc over the years!
Efficiency is the key here, "fuel" is not necessarily un-cool its the manner of how much energy is used and how much is wasted. I.E cars have poor ratio between mass of fuel and how far you can drive. Whilst this has a much better ratio.
@ch4s3r "cars have poor ratio between mass of fuel and how far you can drive. Whilst this has a much better ratio. "
I hope you didn't learn that in school, because it's wrong. Gasoline plus an internal combustion engine has a very high energy density, beating the crap out of any battery you can devise and also beating most practically feasible fuel cells.
I don't remember exactly how It worked. Engadget had an article about it a while back about this whole technology. But I think its pretty cheap fuel, like corn fuel or something stupid? Maybe its used from diesel by products or something... Maybe it's just being re-used? hmm Must look it up..
It's nice to see this technology maturing. If they come far enough along, maybe we'll see recyclable fuel-cell replacements for traditional batteries. They're definitely going to have to do some miniaturization for this to make inroads in the products where it'll make the biggest impact.
As long as they arent made by Sony I don't care. Its scary enough having regular exploding batteries. I cant imagine the horror of exploding fuel cells.
25WHr isn't all that great. My laptop's battery provides 80WHr. Now admittedly my laptop battery looks to be four times the size of that fuel casing, but that's not exactly a stellar increase in power density. I'm not sure getting even double the runtime in my laptop would be worth it if I had to buy more fuel every day.
How is it that 'green' developments in vehicles involve putting batteries in them, when 'green' developments in batteries means swapping them for fuel cells?
Could we end up with a battery powered car that runs on fuel cell powered batteries?!
Disposable cartridges? What part of "being green" those people doesn't understand?
I used to work at MTI Micro, in the "high power" division that was cut back in March of 2007. To be sure, if they can actually bring their technology to market, there are some benefits here. Since they run on pure (non-diluted) Methanol, the energy density of the fuel is pretty high, meaning one could carry around a lot of battery time without adding a ton of weight. They would definitely at least find a niche in the market if their product worked as promised.
That said though, this is a complex technology and there are plenty of obstacles to bringing this stuff to market (particularly in this economy). Due to pressures from the board of directors, the company has fallen into the habit of over-promising, which is never a good thing. Plus, the falling costs of traditional energy makes it less likely that public or private funding will increase or even remain at the same level. I wish the best for them, but there is a long road ahead.
If I'm guesstimating right, the whole unit looks to be about 7 cm x 12 cm x 2cm. That gives me 168 cc total device volume (cartridge + fuel cell pack). Energy density, taking them at their word on 25 WH capacity, is then about 150 Wh/liter. That kind of stinks. I have a Kensington portable battery pack, which admittedly only has 9 Wh capacity, but is much smaller (about 53cc). Energy density of the Kensington is then a little higher, about 170 Wh/liter. Plus, the Kensington is rechargeable and I don't have to throw parts away or go to the store to buy more fuel to recharge it.
Also, I bet you there is a lithium-ion battery inside that big fuel cell unit to handle higher wattage output needed to charge many devices.