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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."
On the other side, we will now be able to talk on our cell phone anywhere any time. No loger will 'my battery is dead' be an accetable reason for not calling the boss back. Gee, thanks guys.
I stole this sig.
since the battery is their weakest link.
Wonder how long it takes when we see iPod or iRiver or other hard-drive based players with cell inside.
They do after all emit co2. I wonder if you can smell them?
Wonder if you're on an airplane and a despresurization happens, the fuel cell blows and nobody can see the flames (because they're invisible). can you flight safe carring one of these?
Here is another article related to the fuel cell in question, and what they are going to use it for. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080& sid=a5sZn3vGo1js&refer=asia I haven't seen anything on cost yet, anyone heard?
This is great! Now can we finally buy one of these f00king things? Or must we be constantly taunted with these advances only available as prototypes to large multi-national corporations and well financed government labs...
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
This is great, but is there any word on how much methanol something like this would go through? More importantly, when are Radio Shack and K-Mart going to begin distributing methanol? I'll need to pick some up on my way out of town.
Then don't think about the lithium ion cells in your laptop/cell phone right now, because they have extremely high energy densities(the battery pack in my Powerbook 17" is probably the same volume as a CD jewel case, and yet contains 61 Watt-hours of power), and require careful management by the device to keep from entering thermal runaway mode, where the battery gets hotter and hotter until it explodes- and I do mean -explodes-. Rather violently.
For several years(possibly still) battery companies wouldn't sell Lithium Ion batteries to anyone except certified "solution providers" to assure the batteries had proper charging and monitoring.
Please help metamoderate.
It's already 8.5 grams for 100 mw and lasts 20 hours? 235Wh/kg - that's already better than some of the best batteries out there (say, Zinc-air, at 200). I'm impressed. Of course, the power density (11.7 W/kg) leaves something to be desired... (even your weakest chemical batteries will give you at least 80 W/kg (say, Zinc bromide)). Here's to them getting better. :)
;)
Only 2cc (ml) of methanol in that? That means that only 1.58 grams of it are the methanol. All I can say is, "wow". If you were to double the mass of this fuel cell by adding only a fuel tank (assuming the weight of the tank is negligable), you should be able to get 139 hours (1.635 kWh/kg) out of it (!). I could live with that
I just invaded Grammar Czechoslovakia and duped Grammar Neville Chamberlain; now it's on to Grammar Poland.
It is normal for several companies to have the same name in Japan. They are often associated, but not necessarily the same company.
As for me, I remember Toshiba has many arms. A division (C.Itoh) of an associated company Itochu sold equipment to the USSR in 1989 or so that allowed the USSR to make their submarines more quiet so we couldn't track them.
Toshiba suffered through import tariffs for a while due to this (not long enough IMHO).
People freak out when you talk about methanol fuel cells, but then forget the mini bottles of liquor on the airplane's drink cart have just an much alcohol. Those people probably wouldn't think twice about carrying around 1L bottles of 151 proof rum or 190 proof grain alcohol.
I wonder will passengers be permitted to board an aircraft with items that are powered by these fuel cells? Heck, the fearful fascists take away cigarette lighters. Why not fuel cells?
"Toshiba claims to of made the worlds smallest fuel cell to date."
Does that make anyone else wince in pain?
Perhaps, because this fuel cell is so small, you don't need the same safety features that a larger cell would need. The plastic casing might be enough to contain a 'catastrophic failure'.
Kinda like that christmas tree sized nuclear reactor that just doesn't have enough mass to melt down...
I don't read AC A human right
MSDS for Methyl Alcohol
Scale is 0="It's practically water" to 4="It'll kill you if you look at it". Granted the stuff probably won't be pure, but how diluted can you make it before it's no longer a usable fuel?
=Smidge=
I used to invest in Manhattan Technologies (mhtx), which made micro fuel cells that ran off methanol, before they ran out of money and went into hibernation. These things were manufactured using printed circuit technology on plastic sheets, no moving parts, rolled up pretty small. They made prototypes, but never divulged which technical details were keeping them from going production. They've got lots of patents. They'll probably wake up and sue anyone who actually succeeds in manufacturing small fuel cells.
The Bloomberg article offers some insight into the business strategy. The plan here is to make units that require a "fuel cartridge". "Fuel cartridges" contain just methanol and water, but will have markups previously seen only for printer ink. Toshiba expects to make ten times as much on the "fuel cartridges" as they do on the fuel cells.
Look for strategies to prevent "refilling".
You name it, we've got it.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y