Horizon's Hydrofill converts water to hydrogen, hydrogen into juice for your gadgets
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 4th 2010 11:26AM
posted January 4th 2010 11:26AM
Could 2010 finally be the year of the fuel cell? Horizon thinks it will be. The company has been teasing us with products for years, and while this latest one is also just a promise at this point, Horizon says it will be for sale by the end of the year. Hydrofill is a "personal hydrogen station" capable of converting water into hydrogen gas, which then gets stored in small cartridges called Hydrostik -- apparently in a crystalline structure to prevent your fanny pack doing a Hindenburg. Those cartridges will be usable in rechargers, like the Minipak, which provides USB output to recharge smaller gadgets on the go. It'll surely be a little more powerful than the toy kit Horizon released back in 2008, but we're bummed this one won't run on vodka like that one did. We tend to have plenty of that lying around this time of the year.
Oh may gahd an Xbox handheld has been leaked in that photo.
@ponno Damn you beat me to it!
@ponno yeah that looks really similar to the xbox aesthetic.
@ponno it's a fanboy's wet dream isn't it?
@ponno
wow, you guys don't know your gadgets, it's just a first gen Sony MyLo with 'shopped on Xbox buttons
@ponno It may just be an Xbox handheld, but it seems to be based off the Sony Mylo and therefore also shares subtle design cues with the PSP Go.
THANK GOD!!! Finally, a cheap way to recharge the batteries in my mining helmet.
@matty Remember: Always use drinking water to power your helmet in times of distress.
@matty
"Cheap"? if you disregard the cost of electricity, maybe... Hydrogen production uses 3 x the electrical energy a fuel cell later provides. Talk about an electricity hog.
Dare I say Superfreaky?
But seriously this is very cool, especially considering it uses water--negating the need to buy methanol or some other fluid...
...Converts TSA into panic and a creates a 6 hour delay.
Guys, THe NEW MINING HELMET HAS BEEn Leakeed!!! No waaaY!
I don't get it. The press release says it plugs into a small solar panel or wind turbine so why not just store the electricity generated by the solar panel/wind turbine in a battery? Using the electricity to extract hydrogen from water will just result in massive decrease in overall efficiency causing a lot of the generated electricity to go to waste.
Why go electricity->hydrogen->electricity when you can just store the electricity in a battery? The device seems completely pointless and does nothing but waste energy.
@Frith You can fill many of these hydrosticks and use them when needed. It seems cheaper then using, say, ten batteries which loose they capacity over time and probably need more time to power them.
@cile1977 The batteries will need a *lot* less time to charge than one of those sticks. The energy requires to split water into hydrogen is massive compared to that required to charge a battery. I also don't expect those crystaline structured cartridges to come cheap. The advantage to these is that they should have a higher energy density than batteries, and may well be produced with less environmentally damaging parts - but that is a best guess until we really see what is in this.
What is that "gaming device" in that picture? It looks like the Milo meets Xbox.
Interesting idea, and should definitely serve a few niches, but battery advancement will bury products like these.
Note how there is no price listed, nor is the size of this device readily apparent. My guess is that for the same size and/or price, you could bring with you a battery pack that would easily last as long as you would ever need a device to.
Still though, a device that runs on water would be damn cool in some situations (like extended camping trips, or some such), but don't expect for it to come cheap.
As water formation is an exothermic process, splitting it would be an endothermic process which would require energy input. My guess is that you need to fill it up and plug it in, afterwhich you can unplug it and take it camping, which is kinda pointless because you can also take batteries camping. Also converting water into hydrogen and oxygen is an incredibly inefficient process so you'll be losing more energy just charging it (if I guessed correctly how this works)
@zipykido
But these fuel cells should have vastly higher energy capacities compared to Li-Ions. Without quoting numbers, full cells come much closer to petrol in energy capacity than batteries do.
@Oli D
"fuel cells should have vastly higher energy capacities compared to Li-Ions"
As much as I dig your Tea Pot, that is not true. When you consider volumetric energy density, H2 is at 10.1 mega joule per liter, while Li sits at 23 MJ/L. Hydrogen (marginally) got two things going for it:
1- Hydrogen is light weight.
2- Fills up quicker than electrons (much like fuel).
As Zipkiddo noted, electrolysis is a highly inefficient process that consumes 3 times the electrical energy it generates. Not to mention that these things are gimmicks promoting the "Hydrogen Economy", just like the Shell, BP, Exxon and Chevron ads you see on TV. In reality only 4% of all hydrogen produced comes from electrolysis (they do it to put on a good face on H2). Most of Hydrogen comes from hydrocarbons reformation, particularly Natural Gas reformation, it is the cheapest, profitable and well dirty way to produce Hydrogen. The oil companies intention is to displace emissions from your tailpipe, or gadget to their Hydrogen plants, somewhere where you can't see the smoke. All the while Oil companies continue to profit from their Natural Gas resources.
All this may seem far fetched to some, but ask yourself, why are these companies investing heavily on ads and full flagged PR campaigns, if they don't intend to cash in big time? Why did Chevron lock batteries advancements with their (purchased) patents for nearly a decade?
I love the irony - This way, Coal miners can carry on drilling that sweet, eco friendly goodness for hours and hours!
electrolysis... wait don't you need electricity for that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water
HindenbUrg.
@Quark
My thoughts precisely. It's HindenbUrg, or Castle of Hinden, not Hindenberg, or Mountain of Hinden.
Besides, we're probably talking very small amounts of Hydrogen, so it can't possibly be worse than a Li-Ion battery leaking. At least it saves you the chemical burn AND you get free water
@Quark Thanks, fixed.
@Looonyz That is possibly the oddest comment I've ever heard.
@Looonyz Even if it's not, there's going to be enough water in there to make hydrogen.
Wow. So this basically turns water into energy? That's an awesome way to recharge a dead battery. Sign me up....
Pointless device! It takes more electricity to split water than to just CHARGE the damn battery!
There is NO free electricity. You need energy to get energy and you need more of it to split the water. Just think about how much is gonna be wasted to heat alone!?!?!!
@kyphem
I don't see how efficiency matters much when we are talking about low power devices. I would gladly accept a 10% (or less) efficiency rating if this new device lasts a long time, is cost effective and doesn't need a replacement every year or two, like my cell-phone.
@Looonyz Water is NOT the only ingredient! You need energy too. I am amazed how ignorant people are.
Only if you have a solar panel then you can plug it in the generator, add water and generate some hydrogen.
And water in the desert is a lot more important so just keep it and bring some damn BATTERIES with you. this tech is useless.
Sir, your mini weighs 2.2 lbs but with a full gallon of water it will weigh approximately 10.1 lbs and have a battery life of 74 hours at idle, 9 hrs 2 seconds in actual use.
i already ordered 10 to go next to my Steorn Orbo
Please... the Hindenburg went up violently due to the composition of the skin (essentially doped with thermite, yes it still would have crashed, but really) so, if the press keeps playing this misguided trope, the ,who can't think for themselves, will never get behind fuel cells of any kind. I'd rather have hydrogen in my i-device than liquid butane...
How many lighters have exploded in people's pockets compared to batteries blowing up?