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Toshiba Develops World's Smallest Fuel Cells
An anonymous reader writes "When you think of Toshiba, you might think of notebooks, but fuel cells? Never. Well, at least not until up to now. Toshiba claims to have made the world's smallest fuel cell to date. The direct methanol fuel cell can fit inside of the smallest of gadgets, ranging from MP3 Players to portal DVD Players. Most fuel cells require a pump that can mix the methanol and water, and a fan to help cool the pump. This makes installing fuel cells in smaller items out of the question. However, Toshiba's new fuel cell does not require a fan or a pump to operate, which means it's much smaller in size, and can be installed in almost any small device."
One would think that the lack of a pump and fan would improve the effeciency, as well.
Toshiba's fuel cell lacks any so called "safety features" meaning it could blow up at any time. Makes using electronics seem XTREME.
If the items are so small then how much energy can they realistically generate? Sure, I may get an extra five hours of my iPod, but if I have to go though the trouble of refilling the damn thing instead of just plugging it in, then I don't see the point.
I like portable fuel cells for laptop use because you can get about 18 hours out of one cell, which is great for flights to India, but when else do you really need that much battery life?
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artlu.net
Gee, you might need grow a nutsack and tell your boss that you have (gasp) personal time, or perhaps just turn your cellphone off and let that speak for itself. Perhaps this technology will actually (albeit in a round-about way) empower you.
I, for one, did not buy a cellphone with the glue-itself-to-your-face feature. Nor did I get the ball-and-chain feature. Maybe these come with the camera? Or maybe a lot of people are just tools.
What, you think normal chemical batteries are safe? Between the highly caustic acids or alkalines, the heavy metals, lack of short circuit detection, propensity for exploding or shooting flames when overcharged, ordianary batteries are death machines if that's your way of thinking.
I don't worry about it much.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
Well, you seem to have no problem with stuff like Nickelic Hydroxide, Poly-vinyl chloride, Mercury or Polychlorinated biphenyls. Look at it this way, if your computer hasn't killed you or given you cancer yet odds are youre safe.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Interesting. Any guesses how they compare in terms of power output and efficiency?
-jim
wrong lithium... lipo batteries are used extensively in electric RC flight, saltwater is the recommended method of discharging a bad pack. (the nasty lithium is an elemental form, batteries use and oxide)
When I think of Toshiba, I think of plastics, bulk chemicals, PLC's, motors, instrumentation, batteries, X-ray machines, and I'm not sure that they still do this, but they used to even be into heavy machinery . . . as well as computers, semiconductors and consumer electronics. Are fuel cells really a stretch?
Does the author of the topic really think that /. readers are that naive?
"Toshiba Develops World's Smallest Fuel Cells"
Actually no. Your cells have the world's smallest fuel cell. And they were first.
Fuel cells, holographic memory cubes (1 inch cubed please), OLED monitors for your laptop/desktop...
/. stories over the last 5 years.
they are all fscking vaporware - and they comprise at least 1% of all
i vote on a ban against all these stories until the story is....
"(insert technology) deivces arrive at Best Buy"
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
. . .it hurts the eyes when you read it.
No. It hurts your brain, which is an entirely different matter. It hurts your unconcious sensibilities. It is empirically demonstrable that it is less hurtful to the eyes, which is one of the reasons I do virtually all of my ebook reading in text mode. It makes a huge difference not staring directly into a lightbuld for hours at a time, but white on black has the same contrast that black on white has.
Bitch about the people who use Navy on black because the lack of contrast makes it virtually unreadable and you have highlight the whole bloody thing to get through it.
KFG
Sure the cells themselves are fine, but will you be allowed to take a pressurized canister of combustible gas on the plane??
Or, even worse, it could develop into a utility, with underground pipes running to your home. Then a whole city could blow up!
Oh wait, we already have natural gas.
Realistically, how much worse would this actually be?
On a standard CRT, white on black is actually more readable, imho, than the reverse; you don't have a screen full of light blaring at your eyes.
Moll.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
Every time a fuelcell announcement is posted to Slashdot (and elsewhere), there are immediately panicked replies about fires and explosions. Of course prudence requires caution with any new, unprecedented technology. But have you ever noticed an *actual* fire or explosion problem with *any* fuelcell, at least in the last 5 years?
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make install -not war
Imagine a world where you could recharge your cell phone by finding a coin op fuel dispenser unit (which could be as ubiquitos as pay phones in urban areas)..
:)
Some of my friends like to bemoan how we will never be able to get off of oil dependence but I tell them "necessity is the mother of invention".
Nice to see
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om Shanti
If you are on a plane and it depressurizes, the methanol in your laptop is the least of your concerns.
You're both right. There are natural gas deposits in many areas that don't have any oil. However, there is also quite a bit of methane as a "byproduct" of oil production. Have you ever seen those flames shooting off of the offshore oil rigs? They're not burning oil, that's methane.
When drilling for oil, methane tends to collect in the same areas as the oil. Usually there is a "space" at the top of the oil resevoir, especially after you start drilling, that is filled with the stuff. They don't have the capability to capture & store the stuff because there's just too much of it. But it's also dangerous to just let it leak out around everything. The solution, controlled burn!
I've often thought it would be nice to capture all of that wasted energy. Not necessarily in the form of natural gas, but perhaps as electricity. I wonder if we could just place some gas turbines on the rigs & then run some wires to the shore (depending on where they are obviously). You've gotta think this is a more cost effective solution for the oil company than just burning the stuff off & losing that possible revenue.
Or perhaps producing Hydrogen.....