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Hitachi Shows Off A Fuel-Cell PDA

Posted by timothy on from the wouldn't-you dept.

prostoalex writes "Hitachi made a PDA, powered by a fuel cell. The device runs for 5 hours, and they plan to expand the battery power to 40 hours. It weighs 700 grams, which makes it heavier than most of the models out there. The commercial production will start next year, a picture is available from MobileMag." (This earlier mention of Hitachi's work talks about how such fuel cells could be used to charge or power other things, from cellphones to laptops.)

5 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Hydrogen environmentally friendly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    qoute from the article:

    Although it has a greater cost then that of traditional power sources, it is completely 100 precent pollution-free.

    At the moment hydrogen is not environmentally friendly at all. It has te be chemically extracted from fossil fuels or electrically extracted from water. When the times comes that hydrogen is produced with truly clean energy (be it renewables or fusion) THEN is will be truly environmentally clean.

  2. Re:Methanol by JanneM · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, "one whiff" and you're certainly not blind. Methanol is only dangerous if ingested, and even then, small amounts will not cause any permanent damage. And while flammable, it is no more so than ethanol, which is allowed in airplanes by the bottle.

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  3. Slashdot Summary Wrong -- Article More Surprising by InnovativeCX · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hitachi made a PDA, powered by a fuel cell...they plan to expand the battery power to 40 hours.

    This is incorrect. If the submitter were to take the time to read the actual article...or the editors...they would have noticed this more surprising tidbit:

    NEC Corp. has developed a notebook personal computer (PC) powered by a fuel cell that runs for five hours and plans to extend the operating time to 40 hours for commercial sale in 2005.

    Toshiba Corp. has developed a fuel cell-based notebook PC that runs for five hours and a handheld-device fuel cell that weighs 130 grams. Toshiba plans to commercialize them in 2005.

    While a PDA that runs for a paltry five hours and weighs over a pound isn't exactly impressive (quite the opposite, in fact), a laptop with a forty-hour battery [fuel cell] would be incredible. Not only would that solve the problem of waiting for endless charging cycles to complete, it would also resolve the issue of batteries losing their life over time (I type this on a PIII-900 Gateway that scarcely lasts an hour and half with a second battery installed).
    The only issue now seems to be rechargability, as I don't believe that this is possible with a fuel cell.

    In any case, this is a tremendous step forward.



    -Scott
  4. Wired Article by drskrud · · Score: 4, Informative

    And interestingly enough, in April's issue of Wired there's an article about how battery capacity and power consumption need to be focuses in the future for American companies. I didn't expect to read about some attempts the very next on Slashdot... although granted, Hitachi is Japanese.

  5. Re:Methanol by tantalus · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm not sure I'd like to walk with methanol in my pocket. Hell, one whiff and you're blind... not sure even if it's allowed in a plane.


    Though it can be dangerous including causing retinal toxicity, ethanol comes far from blinding you with one whiff. You can read the World Health Organization's health and safety info for methanol here.