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?"

Comments

Yes, but what about cost?

[TheAtomicElec]

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. :)

Re:At long last.

[jeffy124]

As long as they don't put out 2.5x the heat

this guy would certainly agree.

Gas station for laptops?

[lantius]

I like the idea of fuel cells for laptops and portable devices, but the obvious problem with them is obtaining fuel. We rather take it for granted that when the laptop battery runs low we can plug it in (or drop it into the charger) and within a few hours it is ready for portable use again. With a fuel-cell based solution you have to acquire new a new cartridge. It seems like the availability of fuel will directly tie to the uptake of these devices.

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.

Re:Great !

[loyalsonofrutgers]

You do realize, don't you, why Bush and Co are focusing on hydrogen as the supposed future? It's so far off in terms of actually replacing much of anything that focusing on it to the detriment of other, more immediately applicable, technologies (hybridization) ensures oil's continued dominance for the foreseeable future.

This all sort of reminds me of the company that was putting out a huge new version of their product, that was taking an incredibly long time. And all their sales people were saying... don't buy yet.. wait... basically hyping the new product. And then when the new product came out they immediately started hyping the next product. No one bought the first product as a result, the company went out of business, and the second version never appeared.

There is a progression of technologies here, and praying for a leapfrog to the next decade's technology and ignoring more immediate technologies only benefits the oil companies, and further delays actual energy independence.

Re:Methanol toxicity

[Dun Malg]

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.

(shrug) Methanol is no more toxic than many houshold cleaners, and when sealed in a fuel cell it's probably a bit harder to get at. When's the last time someone let a child chew on their laptop battery? Even if we end up with bottles of methanol lying around, it'll certainly be no worse than having bottles of ammonia and bleach.