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SiGNa Chemistry sodium silicide might power your next fuel cell
We've been promised portable fuel cells for years, but tech from SiGNa Chemistry might have a real shot at taking the concept mainstream. Instead of the more commonly used methanol, the outfit serves up a sodium silicide mix which it's begun licensing to companies bearing the "SiGNa fueled" logo. One example is PowerTrekk that first went on sale in Europe last December and is now making its way to the US this spring. The special salt concoction comes packaged into 5Wh hockey puck cartridges -- appropriately called Pukks -- to generate power and subsequently juice whatever device you plug into it over USB. It'll ship stateside in May for around $200, replete with an onboard 5Wh lithium-ion battery which acts as a rechargeable buffer, ensuring you'll still have some juice even after you run out of cartridges. Catch the power generating tech in a video after the break.
Powertrekk charges gadgets over USB, using one fuel cell and one Li-ion battery (video)
Portable fuel cell chargers have been around for years, but each seems to have lasered in on a single important quality thus far, such as a reasonable price, an easy refilling scheme, and a decent amount of power -- but never all of the above. Well, it doesn't look like MyFC's Powertrekk is the full package either, but it does have a pretty sweet looking case, which holds not only a disposable sodium silicide container to generate the hydrogen gas (which then gets recombined with oxygen in a proton exchange membrane to produce 1000mAh of usable electricity) but also a 1600mAh lithium-ion battery which can provide up to one amp of juice. This way, you've got a backup battery if you misplace your cans of fairy dust, and a buffer for the fuel cell too, allowing you to keep those volts in powder or electrochemical form instead of carting around combustable hydrogen -- which is always a nice bonus when you think about it. Shame there's no word on price quite yet, but you can see how it all works in a video after the break.
