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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.
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.
Just one might have a small amount, but what about the person who carries a bag full of them? Initial excuse being that there will be only a few places to get these when they first hit the market.
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Li-ion isn't the safest technology, When Lithium Ion batteries were first released 4 years ago(Sic!) they were actually banned from transportation on aircraft. Unsolved problems with batteries exploding violently resulted in the ban. [transair.com] Let's hope that some lessons has been learned and this won't happen this time around. Though, Li-ion batteries are still used today because of better safety regulations [nec-tokin.net] and even built in microprocessors to protect from overcharging. Lithium will still explode or overheat if charged at a too high voltage and if it catches fire, don't try to put it out with water!
The advantages of Li-ion obviously outweight the hazards and since fuel-cells don't seem any worse they will probably get accepted too. Apart from
better performance they might find a niche already because of normal batteries abysmal heat specifications. My laptop battery is not to be operated at temperatures higher than 35 degrees celcius, which really is impossible to achieve if you are using the computer standing on a desk. Not considering people in hotter countries or scientists at the southpole...
Look here for a more balanced story on battery technology [extremetech.com]
... but this post doesn't excite me as much as it might have a year ago. The problem is that I fear laptops will sooner or later be banned from airplanes due to wireless interference concerns.
I've been looking at laptops lately, a lot of them have built in 802.11 and bluetooth. Problem is: how do you know if they are on or off? The average business user who has no idea what his/her laptop is capable of is expected to know to turn the wireless stuff off. Because of this there has been chatter about banning laptops all together.
It seems to me that air-travel should be a larger concern for mobile devices these days. My cell phone that has all these organizer and game features doesn't have an 'airplane' profile that shuts down the transmitters on it. Should laptops have 'Airplane' profiles too?
In any case, I know it's a little off topic. It's nice to see a company saying "we'll get this approved for use in the air", but arguably air travel is their target market. Personally, I wouldn't invest in them until I knew more about what the future holds for computing devices in the air.
"Derp de derp."
And used butane lighters to light their smokes? I imagine the amount of fuel in these cells is less than the amount of butane in a bic lighter, besides, fuel cells are not really a puncturable container that could spill its methanol (and let it light up)
If you ran out of fuel, you could just ask the stewardess for one of those little bottles of vodka..
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I think the idea is that once the fuel cell is depleted, you empty out the waste product (water) and refill it with weak methanol solution. If it's that simple, then recharging your laptop means going down to the drug store and picking up a bottle of wood alcohol. Of course, efficiency comes into play here. You wouldn't want to have to buy a bottle every few days, but depending on the concentration you get one bottle could be diluted to give quite a few recharges.
From the posts I've read here, I've gathered:
1) In small quantities methanol isn't harmful.
2) Fuel cells aren't easily to puncture accidentally.
So, exactly how many batteries would be needed to create a harmful amount? People of malicious intent could easily bring 3 batteries each.
And are they easy to puncture when done on purpose?
The safety of these devices isn't wholly inherent in how they operate in normal situations. We need to look at them and say "could these be a weapon?".