Micro Fuel Cells surge with power to spare

OogamrM writes "CNN (http://www.cnn.com) has a story (http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/09/22/micro.fu el.cells.ap/index.html) about a new generation of fuel cells. They are so small that they are expected to be able to replace batteries in mobile phone and notebook PCs, and last 10 times as long as the best batteries available today. "In the long run, just about anywhere where high-end batteries are the right answer, these devices should be a better answer," say one fuel cell developer. Expect to be able to buy one sometime in 2004."

Comments

But......

[Catmeat]

I bet battery companies going to love this. A laptop battey may not have much of a runtime but the actual cost of running it is minimal. A fraction of a penny is all it costs to recharge the thing.

In this scenario, a fuel cell powered laptop would need a reactant cartridge that the user must throw away and replace periodically. I'd be willing to bet they'll use some sort of propriatory interface so you're stuck with buying cartridges from the same company for the whole lifetime of the laptop. Aside from an improved runtime, it's really no different to running your equipment from throw-away batteries.

Rechargable batteries suck but I think I'd prefer to stick with them.

Miniturization

[ktulus cry]

Judging by the size of the current micro fuel cell prototype and depending on how much smaller they can get, this power source may at least temporarily reverse the trend of ever shrinking phones that are becoming so small that I am rather afraid to use some of them. The major thing I would personally be worried about - one nice thing for all those environmentalists about rechargable batteries is that you rarely need a new one, hence rarely throwing them out. Even when these cells last 10 times as long, how disposable are they?