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Fuel Cells for Laptop Computers
ArbiterOne writes "An article in PC World states that the company MTI Micro Fuel Cells plans to demonstrate a new technology this week that could pave the way for better power technology for laptop and palmtop computers. The article claims that this new technology could provide a battery life 2.5 times greater than that of a lithium-ion battery. Could this be the solution to the problem of short battery life in high-end notebooks?"
As long as the laptop designers don't suddenly think that having more power means they can put components that use 2.5 times the power.
The nice thing about "normal" batteries is that I can go to my hotel room and recharge them. The last thing I need to be doing is wandering around vegas at three in the morning trying to find some hydrogen to power my notebook for the big presentation in the morning.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Now can we get this working for cars so we don't have to pay outragous gas prices!
Could this be the solution to the problem of short battery life in high-end notebooks?
Yes, and with their safety record it could cause the problem of short user life in high-end notebooks.
Stop playing games on the company laptop.
Life in Orange County
what we need is the ultimate fuel source, something from the future. then what we need to do is connect the whole world up to it using wireless electricity technology, and have wireless distribution stations so that the whole earth will be covered.
then, and only then, will we truly have sufficient power for labtops
I like my pubic hair, thankyouverymuch.
But seriously, will this be available in time for current computers (like my brand-new Powerbook) to be able to upgrade to a fuel cell power source?
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
Lithium-Ion batteries only last so long before you have to replace them completely - I wonder if they can get these to be cheap enough to be economically competitive towards the other batteries.
If they last longer, and the cost-per-hour of use turns out to be cheaper...
I [may] disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Remember what Smokey the Bear says. Only you can prevent your MTI Micro Fuel Cell based laptop from starting a forest fire.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Pardon me while I yawn. These things have been just around the corner for a LONG TIME. It seems they get "demonstrated" when there's a pressing need for more money, and then they go away for an undefined period of time.
Call me when I can buy one for my powerbook.
..don't panic
I can just see someone cycling up to a petro-can Station pulling out a steaming laptop and yelling 'Filler up fast! I'm being slashdotted!'
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Do I want an experimental fuel cell on my lap?
Is this thing not rechargable? What does:
"...are worth the expense of purchasing a new fuel cartridge every time the power runs out..."
mean?
How is this viable?
Since the hydrogen fuel cell biggest selling point is that the "exhaust" is largely nothing more than water vapor...
... won't the added humidity to the environment cause unintended climate effects, such as ruined $40 hairdo's and what about an added "rust factor" to externality calculations?
Mod me troll, if you must, I can't help it.
Hmmm... Now where would one find methanol?
I agree about the recharging being desireable. It sounds good but there's some more work to do on it.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Now my dual 3.2Ghz EE Pentium 4 laptop time will triple to 8.3 minutes!
The article didn't seem to mention the cost of these new fuel cell batteries along with their refueling cartridges. I don't see anyone switching to new fuel cell batteries anytime soon unless the cost of the fuel cell and lots of refueling cartridges is approximately the same as a regular li-ion battery. Of course, the nice thing about this technology is that you would never actually need to plug anything in because the battery can't be recharged, just change the cartridge. Also raises the question of whether the fuel cartridges will be hot-swappable. Still, fuel cell batteries sound kewl. :)
One Can Never Own Enough Musical Instruments...
I have seen this on slashdot before but I can't seem to find it and am too lazy to keep looking. I guess this will be the same: no one wants a laptop called the hindenberg
this sig intentionally left blank
Consider the typical office corridor worker, travelling to-and-fro with their tablet PC - do they really want to have to buy or refill a cartridge every day? Would it be practical to have multiple full cartridges on hand and refill them in bulk?
I can see enjoying the option of one of these long life power units if I'm on a flight or in some environment where I need that much portable power without the opportunity to recharge, but it seems doubtful that fuel cells are going to make a major impact on portable electronics until the infrastructure solution is solved. Even still, the infrastructure exists for non-rechargable batteries, yet many people prefer devices that have modern rechargables - it just makes more sense for most situations.
I believe fuel cells are an excellent technology, and a worthy replacement to traditional non-rechargeable batteries, but I find it unlikeley that they will supplant the current methods of use-and-recharge laptop, pda, and cellular batteries - it's just too convenient.
And yes, I know about those Zinc-Air (I think) ones to recharge your cellphone.
Stand clear of the doors. The doors are now closing.
Anyone thought about the fact that Methanol is highly toxic? I can see the headline:
"Small child dies in tragedy involving laptop".
I've not seen any discussion of this aspect of direct methanol fuel cells on the web, but it's an important one.
43 - For those who require slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Wonder how long before people start cracking the top off the fuel chargers and start mixed it with coke... sure it may cause blindness, but there are a whole lot or reasons your laptop will make you go blind. (ba-dum-ching!)
I can just see it now... tough board meeting, heading back on the train... cracking open your fuel cells for sweet sweet relief.
Come on... people do it with whipped cream changers! Next best thing for the liquor-added geek?
Now to find a way to power my laptop on vodka (like Bender!)
see New Sci home page, article is:
though of course you'll need to have paid money to read it...
It does cover some useful stuff including the fact that any alternative to a bettery that produces even relatively small quantities of unpleasant exhaust won't be any fun in a small space - like an aeroplane cabin...
"we demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"
Fuel cells burn fuel (without an open fire, but the process is chemically identical). Laptops are normally used indoors, because that's where typical notebook work is and the displays don't work well in sunlight anyway.
An average human being consumes about 80W, an average notebook uses somewhere between 15W and 30W. That is a significant increase in oxygen consumption per person+laptop.
Several problems need to be worked out before fuel cells are a viable commercial technology, says Allen Nogee, principal analyst with InStat/MDR in Scottsdale, Arizona. For one thing, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has to decide if fuel cells will be allowed on airplanes, he says.
Given the way laptops are used by business travellers, and where they generally need long battery life, this is probably a stopper for the whole thing.
Have you read my blog lately?
Until I can finally put a highly reactive substance in my laptop which gets so hot that I can't stand to place it in my lap. Sounds like a recipe for fun and profit.
http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
Given the huge amount of power it takes just to stay in the air, I can't see a commercial airliner not being able to spare 30 watts per seat for hardware. The weight of wiring might be an issue, but if you run 110 VAC 400 Hz 3 phase down the aircraft and use switching converters at each row of seats that'll be minimal.
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
Over the course of the operating period, the amount of excess water released will not be noticeable to the user, he says.
:D
great, now laptops can pee on us
"Disposable" fuel cells have to be compared against primary batteries, not rechargeable ones. Rechargable batteries typically have about half the energy density of primary batteries. So claiming a 2.5x improvement in battery life for a nonrechargeable system is not a win.
Ballard is further along than anybody else in larger fuel cells. Even they don't have much more than prototypes. Their attempt to market a fuel cell under the Coleman brand was a failure. The Coleman Powermate was launched with great fanfare in 2002, and never shipped. It's not clear what's wrong at Ballard. Their 1KW units should be providing backup power for cell phone sites and such, but it isn't happening.
Ballard uses hydrogen in their fuel cells. Despite all the hype about the "hydrogen economy", Praxair, which sells hydrogen for fuel cells, has this to say:
Fuel cell grade hydrogen is specifically designed to be used as a fuel in fuel cell applications. It contains extremely low levels of impurities (e.g. ammonia (NH3), carbon monoxide (CO) and sulfur compounds) that can harm the catalyst-coated membranes inside the fuel cell.
It is supplied in high-pressure cylinders and can only be used by industrial customers, like factories, laboratories, universities, and military and government installations. Typically, industrial customers already use compressed gases as part of their daily activities. Its use requires adequate ventilation and/or monitoring systems appropriate to the size of the location, helping ensure the safety of personnel when non-air gases are present.
They are going to be designed to plug in exterrnally (RTFA). So when you are near a regular outlet, just plug in the power cord. When you are travelling or otherwise away from an outlet you would have 2.5 times the power of using a standard dies in 30 minutes battery.
Sig temporarily out of service.
Aren't these people paying attention? We're running out of this stuff. -brian
Laptop refueling stations! Fill 'er up with premium, Bob!
GET THEM INSIDE THE VAULT!
Why dont we see lower power laptops?
using current tech for low power consumption they could make a laptop that has say a 500-600mhz processor and a trans-reflective TFT display like that on PDA's as well as using a hard drive/ram/flash combo to give me 3-4 days run time.
add to it by covering the lid in flexible solar panels and you would have a laptop that is useable by most people that will trickle charge from the lighting in the office or sunlight coming in the windows/ car windows/etc....
not everyone needs a 2.8ghz Centrino with a super 3d video card + 10,000rpm laptop hard drive to do their daily tasks.
granted this would mean that OS makers (Microsoft you hear me?) actually start making the OS smaller and faster... but there are times that I wish I could have a sub/sub notebook taking advantage of today's tech making weigh almost nothing with gobs of battery life.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you. /. the server.
Venkman: What?
Spengler: Don't
Venkman: Why?
Spengler: It would be bad.
Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean "bad"?
Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously, and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Stantz: Total protonic reversal!
Venkman: Right, that's bad. Okay, alright, important safety tip, thanks Egon.
Still waiting for my micro fusion reactor power laptop.
-- Note to liberals, yes please flee to Canada.
Ok, maybe it's me, but it seems that no one has thought about the practical implicaitons of how this works.
1) Take the idea of carrying your LiIon battery, and compact charger, throwing it away, and basically replacing it with the equivalent number of AA batteries needed to make a business trip.
1a) Now think about how much your back is going to hurt after dealing with that much weight in an airport.
2) OK, now take that thought, replace those AA batteries with something that's full of liquid, flammable liquid at that, and carry enough of those to power your laptop for a week long business trip.
3) Disposal of the spent cartridges. And the fact that this thing spits out steam (euphemistically called water vapor in the article) right near delicate electronic components. Does it have an exhaust pipe to make sure that you don't get condensation all over your expensive computer bits?
4) How does this really help? It might be cool to do for disposable batteries. I'd love to be able to get longer life in my flashlight with a battery like this, but not in my laptop with those kind of limitations.
Reeses
... this could give a new meaning to "CPU burning"
- other companies make a compatable form-factor
- original company starts changing the form factor on a regular basis
- other companies make refill kits
- original company adds software so the cartridge thinks its empty
- someone makes a 'tool' to convince the cartridge otherwise
- original company sues person under the DCMA
Okay, that's not exactly the timeline with the previous ones, but I'd expect something similiarYou'll go to the store, and have to buy company X's model to it your machine, but the store will be all out, because company X is having a supply problem, and no one else has a comporable model. [case in point -- I got the third to the last pack of AA batteries at the CVS near my house last week....out of 12 or so hooks of Duracell, Energizer, generics, in 4/8/12 packs, they had 2 packs of generics left after I left... I have no idea why they were that low (they could've had more in back, I didn't ask).
If it's some proprietary format, I'm just not optimistic about finding a new battery when mine goes dead.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I saved a copy because it looked like the server was going down http://students.depaul.edu/~bengert/fule/0,aid,116 591,00.asp.htm
Somehow I just don't see you being allowed to take this onboard an airplane, or even allowed through security with it. Bad enough it gives of gasses, but it's full of a flamable liquid?
Can you say 'bomb'?
(Doesn't matter if it can be made to explode, we're talking about the same people who confiscate nail clippers)
These fuel cells use methanol, not hydrogen.
The bad news is that the article implies that these cells are closed units, designed to not be refuelable by the user. Disposable fuel cells have been proposed before, so this is not a new idea. (of course it will be about a week before someone posts on the web a method for drilling a hole in the cell, pouring out the water and refilling with methanol, and finally covering the hole with duct tape) I think the lawyers are worried about the liability of geeks sloshing around methanol.
I can't see me spending $50 to run my laptop for 5 hours and then throwing away the fuel cell.
Batteries (and power technology in general) are so far behind the curve, it's really pretty sad. Moore's Law may be on a vacation in chip land, but it's pretty much closed up shop in the world of battery and power storage.
In a world of cheap oil - who cares?
I'm surprised we don't have kick start deisel laptops... Urrr- that's right - I forgot - that was the Soviet idea of powering a laptop...
RS
HW
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
lol, dongs
You can usually find methanol anywhere they sell fondue supplies... convenience stores, hardware stores, some grocery stores, etc.
and then you can put all wireless transmissions in the trashcan, cause all the signalpower is lost due to mobile 2.8GHz Radeon 9800 gaming mobiles... ...who are "taking" all signal power they can get
you can't get energy from somewhere sbd has to provide it.
and why schoul sbd steal only frequencies that are allowed, the energy frequencys from the power companies if he can take all? Maybe you can pay for YOUR frequency, but why should you not take others
I don't thin that sbd will provide enrgy for nothing
I know he whe has to have a good antenna, meaning for the right frequency, but he can "steal" from other frequencies nevertheless
Also I think its not good to send 1KW through my brain...
Indeed these will actually give a reason for geeks to raid the mini-bar...
Just run it backwards. It's basically electrolysis/hydrolysis, after all.
Will the TSA allow these fuel cells on airplanes? I wonder if they would be considered "flameable fuel". http://asi.faa.gov/these.asp
From: http://www.c-f-c.com/gaslink/pure/methanol.htm
Methanol: A colorless, flammable liquid with an odor repulsive pungent. Shipped and stored in dissolved acetone. Can decompose spontaneously if pressure exceeds 15 PSIG.
Hazards: A toxic substance. Irriatates eyes and causes dizziness, nausea and is a possible carcinogen.
Yeah, I'm going to carry a bottle of that onto a post-9/11 jetliner.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Just order up a couple mini bottles. "No, I dont' need a glass."
As methanol is made of Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen atoms, a common mean to get some is from... Petroleum!
For hydrogen, easy, just take some water, some electricity, and separate Hydrogen from Oxygen. But, where do we get electricity? Sometimes from petroleum, often from nuclear plants...
So before everything else we should better develop cleaner ways for producing our electricity.
What about all those states with stupid laws against selling alchohol after 2am or on Sundays?
I would like to point out how rapid the battery consumption really is. My laptop runs about 3-4 hours on the battery, which I considered to be pretty good, until I thought about my little radio. Granted, it is not nearly as complicated, but it uses 2 AAA batteries about every 2-3 WEEKS of 2-3 hours per day use. Come on, now. Where is that kind of power? Is it very expensive at the wattage/space/heat we need, or is it not available by any means?
stuff |
Take a typical FM broadcast tower. Say, DC101 in the DC-metro area. 22.5 kWatts. That power is spread out over the entire surface area of the region. Some tens of hundreds of square miles. And the inverse-square law is a bitch. Your antenna will receive the tiniest fraction of a watt. It's a good thing your radio tuner or cellphone has a filter and amplifier to do something with it.
You definitely can't get usable juice from that.
No, son, if you were being irridated with narrow band EM waves that were incident in such a fashion to be able to power a laptop (say, 50 watts), without a parabolic antenna, you'd be blind, or dead. This is how microwave ovens work (in the 802.11b range, no less)
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
You won't have to look hard to find this stuff, it'll be the next offer spammers bombard you with. Probably filling containers (made by some shady outfit in SE Asia which could give a rat's patoot about patents or copyrights) with drugstore rubbing alcohol and tap water (watch those calcium deposits!) in their bathrooms in finer trailer parks everywhere.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
That scene from Ghostbusters, where they are in the elevator and they turn the back packs on for the first time.
I can see it now, you go to switch you laptop on everone in the room backs off.
I hereby announce Richolson's Law:
Whenever an article mentioning laptop computers, parts for laptop computers, or any accessory pertaining to laptop computers is posted to Slashdot, the chances someone will link to the Register article about the man who burnt his penis with his laptop approaches 1.0.
It won't be generated fast enough to form droplets, it'll subliminate (unless the room's temperature was below it's dewpoint, but then you shouldn't be using your laptop in those conditions anyway... heh)
The heat transfer would be equally negliable.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Ok... Maybe I need a science lesson here.
Fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen into water, right?
Electrolysis converts water into hydrogen and oxygen... right?
So why is "finding a source of hydrogen" so difficult? Can't you just use the waste water or tap water in your hotel room to electrolysis yourself some Hydrogen?
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
we need cold fusion!
really though, it seems to me that all technologies that are not the 'holy grail' are not a permanent solution to the problems. as processors get faster, they'll use more energy and create more heat. same with everything else in the laptop...
I guess what they say is right though,
there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
I have what many would describe as a high-end notebook, a PowerBook G4. I get about three hours on a charge. I can watch an entire DVD and all the trailers, etc., and still have at least a half-hour of battery left afterwards. If I were miserly--bump all power savings, dim the screen, and spend all my time in vi in the Terminal--I'm sure I could get four hours without trouble.
I'm sure other manufacturers must be able to do the same, if they want.
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
Before you get freaky ideas of humping around 500 antennas on your back, take note that an effective 900MHz antenna can be as little as half and inch long
Sometimes the jokes just write themselves...
[1] Supplemental Type Certification, which is an addendum to the aircraft's original FAA Type Certification. I'm sure that someone installs something requiring an STC into an aircraft in the US several times a day.
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
So what do you do if you have a fuel cell powered laptop and you want/need to fly?
Forgive me if my knowledge in transmitted waves is a bit incomplete, but how and which ranges would you receive with these antennas/antennae? Would you focus on ones that are multiples of 60Hz because of the alternating nature of AC? I do like this idea, though. Imagine having one of these arrays and being able to plug it into your power plug on your computer or directly into the battery to supplement the power. On the other hand, what about heat engines (from the processor or hard drive to somewhere cooler) or having solar panels built into the chassis to augment power? Just some thought into alternative/supplemental power sources for laptops.
I don't remember anything about that!
The NYTimes (reg. req'd) has a report about ongoing research on glucose-based fuel cells. Maybe instead using batteries, we'll soon just plug our laptops into our arms.
For what it was intended for... not bieng plugged into a wall constantly.
I don't know about the rest of you, but my laptop craps out after 20 mins of computing. Running no other apps but a programming IDE, no high end graphics just a text editor. All this plus 20 minutes of computing time from a laptop and battery that are supposed to operate for more than 2 hours.
This is the 3rd battery also.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Last thing I need is a laptop that pees in my lap. That's what my cat is for.
IANAL, but I've seen actors play them on TV
Smokey Bear, as in Mr. Bear, Smokey
A single aspirin-sized pellet of U-235 could power your laptop for 20,000 years. No wimpy Centrinos, but a big honkin' full-strength 43.8-watt Pentium IV. The ability to burn DVD's directly, and I do mean burn. A simple 20-pound lead plate integral with the back of the case provides your lap with thermal and other protection, as well as looking cool. Waste disposal? No problem, nobody's going to throw one away when it still has 19,997 years of useful life in it.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
And now, as with any fuel, we must wait for the British to come up with a completely different name for it.
It seems to me that the most reasonable solution would be to design a sealed-case hydrogen fuel cell with three compartments, one for water, one for hydrogen, and one for oxygen (if the gasses have to be stored separately-I'm not sure). When all the hydrogen and oxygen have been converted to water, you plug it in, and the water is split back into oxygen and hydrogen by electrolysis.
Has anyone built such a device? Are they impractical for some reason (too large, too heavy, too expensive, difficult to manufacture, etc...)?
-jim
I'll be the first to say I'm not a huge supporter of President Bush - but the parent poster's statement is questionable at best, and more likely pure FUD.
Hydrogen is being focused on as the "future" right now simply because it shows the most potential. We've already been through the whole superconductor thing, which turned out to largely be a fiasco. We have a pretty good handle on such energy sources as nuclear power and solar power, and already know where/when to use them, and where/when they're not really viable.
Yes, there might be a more immediately usable power source for automobiles in such things as producing fuel from plants, but the numbers I've seen run on this indicate it's not practical as a way to really migrate all of the U.S. cars and trucks away from petroleum products. (Farmers can't grow enough soybeans and other crops to supply all the demand we currently have for oil, even if you could magically convert every motor vehicle to run on these types of alternate fuels overnight.)
I believe it was well over a year ago, Slashdot linked to a story about people driving around an experimental hydrogren fuel cell powered van in the Chicago area. This technology isn't "pie in the sky". It's basically workable, and shows results for the money put into the research. I think it has little or nothing to do with some conspiracy theory about Bush backing it to protect the oil companies.
....to see them make one for the iPod.
There's never enough when you have too little
The old seat designs are nowhere near as good as they ought to be, and retrofitting ought to be mandatory in any event. No one airline would gain a competitive advantage if all of them had to upgrade, and the cost of wiring improvements in the seats themselves would be lost in the noise.
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
Your right. I'm sure that if tomorrow, Bush announced a new plan for viable fusion energy production, the anti-Bush zealots on /. would cook up yet another conspiracy theory linking him to so-called "Buddies in Big Oil".
If we're talking about point-of-use emissions, then yes, hydrogen is the way to go. The issue is, how do we get the hydrogen. With our current technology, the most likely way of getting hydrogen will be refining fossil fuels, so it does indeed benefit the oil industry. The combination of hybrid/energy recapture systems and more efficient energy conservation measures (like LED lights for instance) with hydrogen may serve to improve matters, but that's not where GM, Ford et al are heading. Refined methanol/ethanol/etc. I'm guessing will be far more expensive per joule of energy than gasoline currently is, so conservation remains a concern. Re: power usage/demands, you have a point - nothing else is viable right now. Clearly that's why the US government should spend 100 times as much subsidizing oil production as it does to stimulate research of alternative energy sources such as photoelectric, wind, etc.
The obvious answer is a tiny Diesel engine. It'll probably be commercialised faster, it will run nicely on rapseseed oil, which you can carry on airplanes, and the coolness factor would be enormous. The Powerbook would doubtless have some six-cylinder BMW design with engine management and a titanium-clad alternator, while Dell would have some two-pot Chinese job that emitted black smoke while starting. Of course, the plane could still run out of salad dressing on the way to a convention, and the filler better not look too much like a hypodermic.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
"Curiosity, like coffee, is an acquired need. Just a titillation at the beginning, it becomes with training a raging passion. -- Nicholas S. Thompson "
Maybe their fuelcell can win the efficient power supply contest.
--
make install -not war
Don't worry, 2.5x the heat is nothing compared to the heat of an explosion of a fuel cell on your gonads.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
I know, I have the same problem with my cigarette lighters. They keep running out of butane and the last thing I need to be doing is wandering around at night trying to find some butant to power my cigarette lighter.
:-)
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
And You Want To Recharge Them Too!!!
Cans of compressed methanol + increased airport security = ?
Fuel cells are energy storage devices. There will be no big hydrogen fuel cell plant producing hydrogen for smaller fuel cells. The best way to do fuel cells is build nuclear power plants everywhere, then, produce hydrogen with all that electricity at night.
This is my sig.
In other news, the NTSB has released it's analysis on the downing of flight AB852. It appears that a laptop running off of a fuel cell started running a little hot, lit the foldable tray on fire, and the fire spread from there throughout the entire fuselage, before burning off the wings, where the plane fell into a steep dive and crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
If these things are constructed correctly you could fill them up with vodka for example. That should not be so hard to find at 3 o'clock in the mornig in Las Vegas. You can buy alcohol nearly everywhere at low prices. If they only made them in a way you can refill them yourself. But possibly they are as coles as printer cartridges.
In the Netherlands, this is a well known way for drunks to get their alcohol:
They report to a hospital with (deliberate) methanol poisoning. They have to be treated to ethanol right away, and (otherwise fortunately) in the Netherlands you will not be asked for insurance in an emergency situation, but just be treated.
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
...because it isn't.
Mods, this is OVERRATED. The guy hasn't even the slightest notion of EM or RF theory.
It's just NOT feasible. I mean, this is the same thing as saying... why can't I power my laptop using the light radiated by all the lightbulbs in my room? If you think about the irridated power of each lightbulb vs. the draw of the laptop, you'd have to cover every square inch of the lit room with photocells to gather it all back up. And you'd need an extreme excess surplus of wattage from the light bulb because of efficiency losses in conversion (both into and from light), and atmospheric losses to consider too.
Why not turn off that 4000W searchlight, and just plug in the damn laptop?
We don't have a natural equivalent of the Sun in the radio range... there just isn't enough power in any (nay, all) of the shorter-length frequencies in any reasonable outdoor area to do anything constructive with, other than maybe operating the earpiece on a crystal radio, or lighting up an RFID tag.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
MTI have already announced Duracell will be supplying Fuel Cell packs.
The Fuel Cells use Methanol not Hydrogen.