Hydrogen Micro Turbine Only 4mm In Diameter

savaget writes: "Luc G. Frchette of the Columbia University Microsystem Engineering Laboratory has developed a 20W electrical generator powered by a hydrogen turbine just 4mm in diameter. For more details, read the Wired article or an older Popular Science article. The tiny generator is more efficient than any battery and is expected to find military and commercial uses including robotics." Imagine the uses ...

Comments

Why?

[cperciva]

Why would anyone *want* a tiny hydrogen-powered turbine generator? Fuel cells are already more efficient than they are even hoping this will become; fuel cells also likely to live much longer since they don't have any moving parts.

I'll agree that it's cool to take things that we are used to at macroscopic scales and make them tiny, but it usually isn't going to be an efficient way of doing anything.