Horizon MiniPak personal fuel cell charger hands-on (video)
By Jacob Schulman 
posted January 8th 2010 4:39PM
posted January 8th 2010 4:39PM
posted January 8th 2010 4:39PM
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When I first scrolled past the picture I thought it looked like a breathalyzer.
@cwestpha
Interestingly, breathalyzers basically are fuel cells, running on ethanol vapor.
i thought it would be more than 7 or 8 batterys... if they make it smaller illl buy one :)
But can I carry it on a plane...and if so, for how long?
@JonS According to their site, you can carry it on airplanes: http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/electronics.htm
@MrFrypan For now, but seriously when the government realizes how dangerous carrying highly explosive raw hydrogen is, I have no doubt it will be immediately banned.
@hussaini The government (the FAA) has already tested this device last year.
Scroll down to page 17 in this PDF to read about this particular product's testing then read the last two slides.
http://www.fire.tc.faa.gov/pdf/systems/Nov08Meeting/Webster-1108-FuelCell.pdf
@JonS
yeah carrying a little container with pure liquid hydrogen....you'll have 5 FBI agents on top of you before you even get on board.
@barakus
RTFA - it's not in a liquid form
@BuddhaChu
nice research. up rank.
@BuddhaChu Page 17 contains a completely different product. That PDF does not contain a test of this product.
I'd happily buy one. It's not defeating the purpose of requiring electricity though to convert the water to hydrogen, but it's a step in the right direction.
@surfernerd6987 I'm no scientist but I would think the energy required to created the reaction is much less than what you get in return in the stick. You could also used the solar panel he mentioned and bee 100% renewable. I am sure someone on here knows the answer ;)
@frank da tank In my personal observations of the Hydrogen system. The energy required to create the substance is more than the value of the substance itself. This is why Hydrogen prototype cars don't plug into garden hoses. They plug into hydrogen reservoirs. This is also why the Water2Gas idea from years ago failed to work.
@surfernerd6987 Sounds like the solar panel is the way to go then, as far as bang for your buck. I want to see pricing.
@surfernerd6987 "In my personal observations of the Hydrogen system. The energy required to create the substance is more than the value of the substance itself".
True, by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. But that's true of any power conversion device. The petrol energy being poured into a a car engine is more than the energy produced by the car engine. The electricity that goes into charge a battery is more than the electricity coming out of the battery.
And, similarly, the electricity energy going an electrolyzer is greater than the hydrogen energy coming out of the electrolyzer (and in turn, the hydrogen energy going into the fuel cell is greater than the electricity coming out of the fuel cell)
Having said that, the efficiency of that chain of conversion losses is probably something like 30%, far less than the 80% of charging and discharging a battery. You're probably not buying this thing for efficiency, you're buying it because you need a really really long run time.
freakin kewl!
i think that it should be set up so that you can use electricity the first time and then use the hydrogen created to power the creation of more... and word on price?
@crazy4pie
don't people learn, you are talking about perpetual energy which is impossible. It takes more energy to split water into H and O2 than you can get from the H and 02
in short your idea breaks the laws of energy conservation
Why not just charge batteries? The MiniPack is a whole lot bigger than 7-8 AA batteries.
Some people are concerned about how much weight they're carrying.
Eight AA batts @ 23g ea. = 184g
One MiniPak (80g) + HydroStik (75g) = 155g
The benefit becomes obvious when you're having to carry lots of batteries for a long time. Double those 8 batts and you're up to 368g, whereas to double up on a HydroStik only increase your load to 230g.
http://horizonfuelcell.com/file/MiniPak_brochure.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_(electricity)
Charging time is important too, see my comment below re: solar charging.
Batteries have two big limitations: weight and charge time.
@letstakeawalk
Oh how simple our lives would be if every device used AA batteries. If you're hiking and concerned about weight but must bring gadgets, you don't want to carry a spare battery for every device. This minipak provides the user with a compact and simple device that can charge all of those devices.
If it's not insanely expensive I would buy one just because I know it would come in handy when camping with friends. Someones ipod dies, or their cellphone is losing power fast because they didn't turn the wireless off. Here, use my minipak, I have a few cartridges left.
@phoneyfarmer
Scaryfast
I mentioned AAs 'cause that's what was brought up, but you are correct. Hydrogen has potentially much greater energy density than batteries, so when you don't want to carry a lot of mass, hydrogen is the way to go.
It looks like a big cigarette lighter made by Newport in the 90s.
I've seen a few fuel cell chargers at fry's a month ago so your dreams have already come true.
Great work, now hopefully it doesn't cost the same as 7 or 8 thousand batteries . . . What's really nice is the user sourced hydrogen, how many times can you refill the cartridges?
Can it power something like a laptop computer? I only saw a USB connection.
You are really getting quite funny now, how did you alway manage to mention an Apple product in every article. Is the iPhone already the universal measurement instrument or what?
@daily
Indeed, it is the new measurement standard. For instance I am 16 iphones tall(shown as 16i) and have an iphone weight index of 655.
@AW82 +1
I do like the concept of hydrogen fuel cells, but in this case I'm a little confused as to how this system is more efficient than simply charging 8 rechargeable batteries with the solar panel and charge controller... Cutting out the middle technology?
It's not always about efficiency - sometimes time is important.
This gets you a full charge in one hour.
If you're using a solar panel to recharge (meaning you only have daylight to burn), what would you prefer: Several HydroStiks @ one hour to charge each, or one battery pack over several hours?
@(Unverified)
What about the shelf life once it has been charged? Probably last 3-4 times longer than a traditional rechargeable battery. Also if the cartridges can be reused more than a rechargeable battery, that would be another advantage.
@letstakeawalk Time factors are helpful, but this thing is charging a charger... I'm talking about eliminating that intermediate step. That's what I want to see
@(Unverified)
what you're missing is that it's meant to be a portable system. much like the battery charger charges the battery to be put into an external charger.
Think about how ridiculous it'll be to have a to carry around an external charger that has water running around in it.. it's simply just asking for trouble. This system is also great because you don't ever have to power off your device to change it and allows you to extend the life of the device without breaking the stride.
The concept of this product is to be an external portable charger. Not a replacement/spare battery.
@letstakeawalk The energy lost in this conversion would be on a scale of about 10:1. Go buy a modern lithium battery and charger, both can be had for quite a bit less then this gadget I am sure.
What is the energy density of a fuel stick? an R/C - Airsoft 7/8 cell battery is about 3200-4000mah at 8.4-9.6v
@(Unverified)
2W 5V @ 0.04A, with each HydroStik 12Wh
http://horizonfuelcell.com/file/MiniPak_brochure.pdf
@MiketheVee I'm not really missing anything... at the moment, I own multiple "Green" charging systems, to include solar chargers... I have the ability to charge both Lithium Ion battery packs and traditionally shaped batteries... Charged by the solar charger. The charged batteries are the power supplies. Yes, I'd like them to charge faster, but I don't want this intermediate charger... Just the power packs themselves.
@(Unverified)
If you've already invested your money in a battery system, nobody's telling you to buy this.
But for people who are looking for an alternative, this might be the way they prefer to go. Anyway, this is a brand new product, so it's very likely that prices will come down and efficiencies will increase as they continue to develop it.
Another plus for H2 - it doesn't suffer the gradual weakening that you get with batteries, either over their whole lifespan or at teh end of a charge. My Li-Ion batts for my bike lamps aren't as strong as they use to be, and they really a re crappy now in the cold. HydroStiks aren't affected by low temps. I'd consider this system for my bike... (now how about a price, Engadget?)
http://twitpic.com/x8tjm
@letstakeawalk Not helping... I'm saying this could be a fantastic concept if it were approached differently. Personally, I see a redundancy in the process. Somehow eliminate that, (I'm not an engineer) and this could be a game changer. Overall the concept is good, and it's where I'd like to see renewable energy head... Hydrogen (Or similar) fuel cells.
@(Unverified)
I'm sorry but I have a feeling you don't understand what this is. It's meant, again, as a charger that does not require you to power off your system and replace the battery. It allows you to charge your system instantly without having to power it down. It is also a universal charging system which means you can charge anything that you can charge via USB.
You also have to look at what technology it is. Solar Cell simply requires sunlight and the cells to transfer light to energy, but this one is based on hydrogen which requires water to change it to solid hydrogen fuel. Think of it this way, would you rather carry a battery that has a very high capacity that can be used at anytime at a smaller form factor, or a battery that has a much smaller capacity and requires a source that is weather based (sun or no sun).
There is no such way to harvest hydrogen into a solid form from the air around you.
so yeah, the point of this system is to allow you to recharge your device without requiring a power down.
@MiketheVee I'm fully f-ing aware of what the thing does... I've explained that more than once. I've got quite a few of these types of devices lying around that I've bought over the years. In fact, I just bought another one 3 days ago. You're not understanding my problem with this. There's a redundancy I want to see eliminated... That is all.
@(Unverified)
I think you guys are missing what (Unverified) is saying. He wants to use the cartridge directly with the device, not have the cartridge used by a charger that charges the battery of a device.
Of course, this will take a while to implement and miniaturize.
@(Unverified)
Jakey, I wish (unverified) had just said what he meant. I posted a link that showed a HydroStik used to power a flashlight, and they are also used to power an RC car.
There's no reason why a whole electronics infrastructure couldn't utilize these little cartridges...
http://horizonfuelcell.com/store/hcell.htm
@jakey
yeah, he wants to have a special battery for all his specific devices. but the point of this specific one is meant to be universal. and also, as i have mentioned earlier, it's also so that you dont have to power your device down. so yeah, one of those things being an extra source of power not a replacement. (besides, it seems like that part where the fuel cell connects to the device has its own way of changing that solid hydrogen fuel to electricity..)
@MiketheVee Look, I am simply saying that there is a redundant element to the whole thing, fuel cell or not. that is all.
do not want. splitting hydrogen from water molecules using electricity is wildly inefficient and consumes 3x the electricity that you'll end up storing for your device.
a cute product and a slick package of cutting edge technology do not make up for operating cost.
@willowtwf
how much energy do you think it takes to make a battery and ship it to you compared to the energy stored in the battery?
making portable energy takes energy. i'm more interested in what their 'solid' form of hydrogen is.
@yincrash Yes, there is always energy loss. Horizon did not have to do it this particular way, though. I would have gone with solar cells and a hand crank.
when they say its capacity is as much as 7-8 AA batteries, I wonder what the raw number really is (i.e. how many mAh).
Looks nice !