Laptop Fuel Cells Approved For Air Carriage

gilgsn writes "According to reports in BusinessWeek, the US Department of Transportation has ruled that a new fuel cell developed by US company Polyfuel can be taken on airplanes. The announcement clears the way for the commercialisation of fuel cells as an alternative to batteries in notebook computers. The use of direct methanol fuel cells on aeroplanes has been questioned as they contain methanol, which is flammable. According to Jim Balcom, Polyfuel's CEO, the US DOT said that a fuel cell designed by his company could be taken into aircraft cabins when it goes on sale because it contains a relatively low concentration of methanol. Fuel cells are viewed as a promising power source in notebook comptuers as they are instantly refuellable (using fuel cartridges) and will power laptops two to three times longer than standard batteries. Full Story." This will be more exciting news when the fuel cells are actually available.

Comments

Cell Phones and More

[pgrote]

A Wired article touched on this previously.

The neat thing are the carbon nanotubes used to drive these things. NEC is working on fuel cells for phones.

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Interview with GoDaddy President Bob Parsons

Re:"Relatively" Low?

[breyguhn]

They don't seem to have a problem selling you bottles of vodka from the duty free cart...

You could make a pretty nice fireball with a couple of those.

Re:Bush loves the idea!

[CrazyDuke]

Before people start moding this guy down as a baseless anti-bush troll, I'll add some info. There is some truth behind his opinion. As I stated earlier, methanol is extremely toxic whether consumed or inhaled as an aerosol. Small amounts cause blindness and death. In addition this quote backs up his fossil fuels claim:

"Methanol, . . . is made from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas."

For more on the clinical side of methanol click here.

For the person that replied saying that methanol was in alcoholic drinks, there are some trace amounts of methanol in alchoholic beverages, as well as several household products, but the primary alcohol present is ethanol. While still technically a poison, it is not nearly as toxic as its chemical siblings and is easily metabalized into harmless byproducts.

FYI: Ethanol in labs is "denatured" with methanol to made it so it is too toxic to drink. (We couldn't have highschoolers hangin in the supply room drinking 199 proof now could we? ;) )

Re:How long do these things last?

[spike hay]

However, if tehy do not last long, and users are having to swap them out constantly, doesn't that pose a fire hazard? (having 2 fuel cells per lap top toting passenger?)

When you think about it, the methanol is encapsulated and is a fairly small amount (50 mL maybe?)

When you order your shot of scotch on the plane, you have a flammable liquid which is not encapsulated at all, and is slightly more volatile than methanol.

direct-methanol fuel cells

[Erpo]

I can't see direct-methanol fuel cells not making it to production and widespread use in all sorts of things from laptops to cars. They have all the positive qualities of regular (hydrogen) fuel cells, but they have a few more really significant advantages:

1. They're easily rechargable. Anyone can pour a weak methanol solution from a bottle into a fuel cell's reservoir, but not everyone has the equipment (or desire) to store compressed hydrogen in their home or car.

2. They're stigma-free. Mention hydrogen and the first thing many people think of is the hindenburg. While it's true that hydrogen was _not_ the cause of the disaster (entire thing was covered in flammable paint), many people think it is and will shy away from hydrogen-powered cars and appliances for that reason. As far as I know, there have been no significant disasters for which methanol has been blamed. (Disclaimer: I may be wrong.)

3. A weak methanol solution really is safe - it's not going to hurt you unless you drink it. (Methanol isn't drinkable alcohol, that's ethanol. Methanol is converted by the body into formaldehyde, the stuff you use to preserve dead things.)

Re:safety

[ncc74656]

May I also remind you that the ethanol you buy at the store is denatured with methanol anyway.

If you're talking about "rubbing alcohol," that's not ethanol...it's usually isopropanol. If you're talking about Everclear, it had better not be denatured.

Re:Safe?

[the_other_one]

Try take a 1.5v D cell and run steel wool accross the terminals. We used to start campfires that way back in my scouting days.

Scientific American Article

[panurge]

An article in Sci Am in 1999 (which doesn't appear to be on the internet version, unfortunately) went into considerable detail on the technology needed for this type of fuel cell.
The small quantities of methanol, and the dilution with water, means the risk is pretty low (you could cause more trouble, I guess, breaking out the lithium from your batteries and adding it to water - don't try this at home,folks).

For those who are asking, that article also explains why it is difficult to scale these cells up to automotive use.

One problem for the automotive industry is that methanol attacks many of the components of the current fuel distribution system, which is quite sensitive to the chemical composition of what it carries. At one time you could find carburetor conversion kits for some British motorcycles which included gaskets of different materials to handle this problem, and I tried this during the 1970s fuel crisis. Handling pure methanol without a standard fuel pump is not much fun, but it surely cleans out the carbon from the engine and the experiments were worth it just from that point of view.

And btw, rubbing alcohol WILL NOT WORK in your methanol fuel cell, neither will vodka.