Slashdot Mirror
Portable Fuel Cell Technology
Quite a number of people have been writing about the announcement from Motorola concerning their new fuel cell. The new approach is an innovative one. They are using methanol, wood fuel alcohol, in a patented approach. Power claims are "twenty hours for laptops" and a month for cell phones - and it's small enough and light enough that it could simply replace a battery. I'd love to have something that could do that - better than the maybe-an-hour-and-a-half with my Vaio.
Aha! It's about time. Fuel cells really have significant potential.
Think about it, electric vehicles suffer from two problems: range, and recharge time. Range isn't a problem for a commuter, but since when is the only use of a car commuting? Because demand for these vehicles is so low, outside government policy, the companies must find a way to expand the reach of the battery packs.
The second problem, really a corollary or perhaps even a cause of the first, is the fact that it takes so long to recharge a battery. I can refill my gas tank in a few minutes, but I have to leave an electric car plugged in whenever I'm not driving to keep it charged. I thought that we would see "plug in batteries," like those in the hand tools.
Drive in to a "gas" station, unplug your battery pack, plug in a new one, and go. The station keeps a bank of them recharging at all times. This seemingly simple solution is probably not cost effective, at least with current demand on electric vehicles. So the charge time stays limited, limiting effective range, limiting demand, limiting the spread of electric cars.
Not so for fuel cells! Fill 'em up like a gas tank, and you've got electric power. Existing stations could be used, putting methanol in the tanks instead of gasoline. No need for overnight charges, no need for battery swap stations, no need for anything but someone to make the cars.
Let me know where I can get stock.
Has anyone noticed that this technology is coming from the same company that also invested heavily in Iridium, which was(is?) plagued by bulky and heavy handsets that have trouble sending a clear signal inside buildings?
Instead of just making the current devices run longer, this technology might also be slated to increase the viability of technology like Iridium gaining broader customer appeal.
After all, when you spend billions to launch a bunch of satellites, what is a few million more in fuel cell research to make the system viable?
This same technology might also make many technologies we don't currently think of as portable, portable. Try thinking of replacing the plug, not swapping to a different battery.
Zor
"We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking." -Mark Twain
Are these things meant to be throw away? From the sound of it, either you buy a whole new one or refill the methanol manually:
They would use small plastic canisters similar to those used for fountain pen ink. Consumers could easily check the methanol level to find out when to replace the fuel cell, which will likely cost as much as or less than traditional rechargeables, Ooms said.
This would really suck! I don't want to change batteries ever. I want to plug the thing in or even better, have it recharge through solar and kinetic sources. Who wants batteries that need to be replaced all the time (expensive)!
Fuel cells have been around for many years and it is pleasing to see them making progress in the direction of mass use but to date there has been one problem yet to be overcome. Methanol is highly volatile, highly flamable and has a low flash point. As such I'm not sure what the airlines are going to think about half the passengers in business class carrying a pint of the stuff in their laptop bags, in containers that have to go the compression and decompression each landing and take-off.
While I look forward to being able to use this technology we are going to need to see clear evidence of the safety of the products before we will be able to travel with them.
If intelligent life is too complex to evolve on its own, who designed God?
Now, if the government would just let us start converting cannibis into methanol again, we could run our laptops for days off of pot.
This might seem trite, but there's a serious side here. If Motorola &C can turn this technology into one capable of -- cheaply -- running, say, an automobile -- then demand for methanol is going to go up. WAY up. Right now we easily produce enough cellulose (in the form of corn cobs, wheat stalks, &c) to meet our present demand. Once we run cars off the stuff though, we may need to look for other supplies of cellulose...and cannibis farming will probably be the cheapest solution.
It's pure speculation, but interesting to think about, nonne?
Finding God in a Dog
Fortunately for those of us who like a drink, the human body is quite efficient at metabolizing ethanol. The first step involves partial oxidation of the ethanol into the equivalent aldehyde ethanal (CH3CHO). This is removed by further enzymic reactions eventually culminating in carbon dioxide and water as waste products.
As it is chemically similar to ethanol, methanol is initially acted upon by the same enzymes, partially oxidizing it to form the equivalent aldyhyde methanal (CH2O). That's the IUPAC name for it; you may be more familiar with the "trivial" name formaldehyde.
So if you drink wood alcohol you get formaldehyde as a metabolite byproduct. Now, anyone who has done biology at school will at some point have seen preserved specimens of animal tissue floating in a jar of liquid. That liquid is formaldehyde.
It's used for specimen preservation because it pickles animal tissue, toughening it in the process. As it's readily absorbed by (and quickly reacts with) soft tissues, it helps to preserve delicate structures that would break up in most other cheap preserving media.
Unfortunately two notable soft tissue structures in the human body are the retina and the brain.
So, to summarize: the reason why wood alcohol causes blindness and insanity is that the metabolic byproduct, formaldehyde, literally pickles the brain and retina. Cool, eh?
Since the congeners present in most alcoholic beverages include a small amount of methanol, if you're a heavy enough drinker you will obtain the same tissue deterioration to some extent. Though your liver will probably pack up first. And you'll be too pissed to notice anyway.
Cheers!
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Your laptop will produce visible steam when the humidity is high enough. Don't try to use it in a closed box, it will suffocate.
The methanol fuel is toxic, but the by-products aren't. see the EPA's chemical summary This isn't much different from batteries which are generally also toxic.
The methanol must be very pure, or the fuel cell will stop working.
Making methanol is a lot easier than making batteries, so it should be a lot cheaper eventually. Safe packaging and purity requirements will make it more expensive at first.
Ballard Power Systems (BLDP) is doing stationary fuel cells for homes, and for cars. Plug Power (PLUG) is doing cells for homes, and Manhattan Scientifics (MHTXE) is currently developing these micro-fuel cells which Motorola and others will probably be licensing.
If you're interested in fuel cells, check out those companies, and also check out my fuel cells mailing list. Info is available on how to subscribe at http://reality.sculptors.com/lists.html