Slashdot Mirror
Mobile Fuel Cells Soon?
Mark Leaman writes "Motorola has made a strategic investment in Vancouver based, micro fuel cell developer Tekion with a view to the inevitable rise of the fuel cell as a power source for mobile products. Tekion is creating a new "personal power source", known as the Formira Power Pack, that will fit inside mobile products and enable consumers to stay connected for as long as needed. "
Our technology uses Formira(TM) as a fuel (as opposed to methanol which is used by most other micro fuel cell developers). Formira(TM) is purified and modified formic acid. Formic acid is abundant in nature and its name was derived from the scientific name for the red ant, Formica Rufa, which produces it in large quantities. The high power capability and simple chemistry of Formira(TM) fuel cells allow us to build a product that is less complex than methanol systems and actually fits within portable devices.
It is interesting that a fuel cell that is very technologically advanced uses formic acid, a chemical produced by one of the smallest of animals, the ant. How many other innovations can be derived from studying the chemical processes in nature?
Nowhere on the Tekion site does it say how long the cell lasts, but from the chart shown here: http://www.tekion.com/business/index.htm you can derive that it will be at least twice as long as a conventional Li Ion battery. Excellent work!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Our technology uses Formira(TM) as a fuel (as opposed to methanol which is used by most other micro fuel cell developers). Formira(TM) is purified and modified formic acid. Formic acid is abundant in nature and its name was derived from the scientific name for the red ant, Formica Rufa, which produces it in large quantities. The high power capability and simple chemistry of Formira(TM) fuel cells allow us to build a product that is less complex than methanol systems and actually fits within portable devices. From TFA.
Who is saying that the device needs to be turned off to get a refill? Maybe these things *can* stay connected for as long as needed (as long as you carry around a large jug of fuel and have access to more before the jug runs out).
Honestly, the more you say Honestly the more you sound like a liar. :-)
Am I not a liar?
I was at AIChE 2005 (Chemical Engineering stuff if you don't bother to click the link), and followed the fuel-cell topical. These cells did make a few appearances (also last year in Austin already).
The cell is being researched by professor Richard Masel and his group. It has a relatively low power density, but that's enough for mobile electronics (no, it will not be usable on cars). The reason Masel's group is the only one working on these is that previous results discredited formic acid as a fuel, but Masel's group found out that they were using the wrong catalyst: platinum was being used (as in any other fuel cell), but for formic acid the correct one was actually palladium. Apparently, formic acid has much less problems in membrane permeation than methanol (that is, it does not burn without you using it), and has already passed tests of over 2500 consecutive hours of power production without failure.
Masel actually complained a bit that this very press release had been delayed one week, last week he could have had the press release at the same time of the conference, and could have mentioned the name of Motorola explicitly.
Another curious fact is that probably everybody of you reading has eaten some formic acid (it's in various foods), even if the high concentration at which it is used in fuel cells makes it unsuitable for a snack (it is actually going to be "burn" the skin).
For those interested, here are some abstracts: Present Status of Formic Acid Fuel Cells, High Performing Air Breathing Passive Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell (Dfafc), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Mri) Microscopy of Operating Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell (Dfafc), Formic Acid Electro-Oxidation by Pd: Particle Size Effects. Proceedings are however not free for the taking, and one has to buy the CD (135 $). No guarantee they contain anything more than the abstracts for the given papers, however.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
Apparently it uses Formic acid. "Things" would get rather itchy if the battery were to leak ;-)
Of course it begs the question on how the formic acid is produced, and whether it is a "green" process or not.
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
There certainly are a lot of fuel cell fans here, and the "coolness" factor always seems to keep them from thinking about the real pain of having to use fuel cells. Think about the days when you had to buy new alkaline batteries for everything that didn't plug in. You were always buying new batteries. Your batteries would run out, and you would suddenly realize you don't have any extras. You would realize you only had the wrong size batteries. You would realize you forgot to bring extra batteries with you. Remember how much it cost to constantly be buying new batteries? And can you imagine something like cell phones, which would undoubtedly take their own specific size of fuel cell. Can you imagine having to keep 50 replacement fuel cells around when your battery runs out? Having 50 different sizes of fuel cells? A rechargable battery has one drawback - it takes time to recharge. But it has a lot of pluses - you can recharge it practically anywhere in your country, as everywhere has the same, standard power outlets. You can recharge it in your home, at a hotel, at your friends house, hell - with a converter you can recharge stuff in your car! It recharges very cheaply. Recharging it is a low-environmental impact operation - *relatively* little pollution is created by the power plant, and there's nothing to throw away. The biggest two conveniences for me are that 1. I don't have to do much to recharge - plug it in and it does it's thing, and 2. I can do it completely at home, or most anywhere I go. There's 1 reason why companies want to develop these fuel cells - they want to force you to pay them over and over again for their fuel cells, rather than you being able to cheaply and conveniently recharge your stuff at home where they don't make any money off you.
Its the stuff we're pumping and digging up out of the ground that's adding to our CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
But isn't that stuff we pump and dig out of the ground just plant/animal material made up of CO2 that those, once living, things obtained from the atmosphere when they were alive?
--
Q
Carbon in the form of petrochemicals that has been under the ground for several million years is no longer part of the carbon cycle. Reintroducing it to the atmosphere has serious dangers associated with it.