Toshiba has been promising the world a healthy dose of fuel cell chargers for what feels like ages now, with its most recent swearing happening just two months ago. Here at CEATEC, the company's wares were being trumpeted by KDDI. We witnessed a standard handset have its stock battery removed and replaced with an admittedly bulky fuel cell container. The booth attendant proudly juiced up the cell, clipped it onto the phone's rear and mashed the power button. Within seconds, the device booted up normally, and a handy level indicator on the charger itself kept us in the know on how much life was left. Or -- you know -- maybe the whole thing was just an elaborate hoax to fool English-speaking media into thinking this stuff was really nearing its commercial release. Have a look at a brief video just beyond the break, but try not to get your hopes up too high. No need in having your heart broken again unnecessarily.
the whole thing reminds me of the mobile phones of the mid 90s.... One you can safely chuck out of the car windows, hit someone's windscreen, stop, picked it up, and still be able to make some calls....
Longer. The first instance I can remember was the Gigabeat prototype and that was shortly after the F series came out so they've been showing things like this for at least 4 years.
... and by "water" I of course mean "methanol". I was raised in the backwoods. We didn't have no water, just my gran-pappy's tater-juice. So I sometimes get those two confused.
I don't really think this technology suits well in cellphones, or other pocket devices. It would make a whole lot more sense to use these in other devices like notebooks, MID's, or similar devices where the battery is already pretty large.
Yeah, the best application I can see for this is laptops, which is pretty much the portable thing that drains the most energy for me. The fuel is more energy dense but is seems the fuel cell itself might take up a lot of space, so it definitely diminishes the usefulness of this.
What I don't get is if the stuff they are filling the charger with is water or not. Assuming it is (since that is the most intuitive way of obtaining hydrogen for fuel I suppose), then there is no way this is real, because you would need another source of power to separate the hydrogen in the water for a H20 fuel cell to be feasible.
Hydrogen itself is way too dangerous to be contained in a plastic bottle like that, so either that stuff is something other than water (which would make the fuel cell run off of something other than "clean" water), or this is a total fluke.
Why is this being called a "fuel cell"? It's just a battery. All batteries run off chemical reactions. In this case, the chemical reaction is started when you pour the solution in.
People get a clue on this. If it ever does come to reality you will not be carrying little squirt bottles around. The run times on the DMFCCs will be long enough that you will not need to re charge for a long time. A week, maybe a month. That is the whole purpose of this tech. Batteries are holding back tech right now. Someone needs to develop a new standard. Its going to happen for sure. But, how it actually develops remains to be seen. Within 5-7 years the current way we power our devices will be gone. We will be looking at much much longer device run times. That is the foremost goal of all of these companies.
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posted Oct 6th 2009 5:58PM
I knew they weren't going to be small but fuck me that's big.
That's what she said. ;-)
I find that bottle like thingy disturbing.
the whole thing reminds me of the mobile phones of the mid 90s.... One you can safely chuck out of the car windows, hit someone's windscreen, stop, picked it up, and still be able to make some calls....
I can't wait to carry around a baby bottle with me.
@darkmax
Now you can chuck it out the window, hit a windshield, and watch it explode into a ball of flame.
haven't we been seeing these things for three years now?
Longer. The first instance I can remember was the Gigabeat prototype and that was shortly after the F series came out so they've been showing things like this for at least 4 years.
I wonder how good that battery is, it's not a bad size for a laptop.
JUST GIVE ME THIS THING WITH A STANDARD USB PLUG, THANKS.
+1 to that brother. Leave me my regular battery, but give me a little water-powered recharging unit I can keep in my bag for those long days.
... and by "water" I of course mean "methanol". I was raised in the backwoods. We didn't have no water, just my gran-pappy's tater-juice. So I sometimes get those two confused.
You mean ethanol? Methanol is poisonous for you. Not that ethanol isn't, but its considerably less toxic.
I don't really think this technology suits well in cellphones, or other pocket devices. It would make a whole lot more sense to use these in other devices like notebooks, MID's, or similar devices where the battery is already pretty large.
Yeah, the best application I can see for this is laptops, which is pretty much the portable thing that drains the most energy for me. The fuel is more energy dense but is seems the fuel cell itself might take up a lot of space, so it definitely diminishes the usefulness of this.
i guess airlines are going to be thrilled by the idea of passengers carrying squirt-bottles of methanol around
Nah, they'll just sell you off-brand methanol from the beverage cart. At a huge markup.
What I don't get is if the stuff they are filling the charger with is water or not. Assuming it is (since that is the most intuitive way of obtaining hydrogen for fuel I suppose), then there is no way this is real, because you would need another source of power to separate the hydrogen in the water for a H20 fuel cell to be feasible.
Hydrogen itself is way too dangerous to be contained in a plastic bottle like that, so either that stuff is something other than water (which would make the fuel cell run off of something other than "clean" water), or this is a total fluke.
Hydrogen as a gas pretty much effuses through anything. It is literally the smallest thing you could ever (feasibly) have.
Can't wait to see the smiling faces from TSA when they find one of these in my luggage?...
Why is this being called a "fuel cell"? It's just a battery. All batteries run off chemical reactions. In this case, the chemical reaction is started when you pour the solution in.
It's called a fuel cell because it's a cell that uses fuel. I.e., a battery that can be "recharged" with a fuel.
image #17 caption:
"look...LOOK at this USB PORT!"
People get a clue on this. If it ever does come to reality you will not be carrying little squirt bottles around. The run times on the DMFCCs will be long enough that you will not need to re charge for a long time. A week, maybe a month. That is the whole purpose of this tech. Batteries are holding back tech right now. Someone needs to develop a new standard. Its going to happen for sure. But, how it actually develops remains to be seen. Within 5-7 years the current way we power our devices will be gone. We will be looking at much much longer device run times. That is the foremost goal of all of these companies.