iTechNote

The race for micro fuel cells that power devices is heating up. Several companies are anxiously working on developing and marketing micro fuel cells for portable devices. The most recent announcement by Samsung after Christmas allows you to run a laptop for a whole month, assuming it runs for eight hours a day.

The following is a list of fuel cell research published in the past 5 years.

• Wired News, 2002: A startup from Munich, SFC, has developed a micro fuel cell that runs on methanol or Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC).
• BBC News, 2003: NEC has unveiled a laptop computer that has a built-in fuel cell powered by 300 cubic centimeters of methanol, uses a catalyst to break this down into oxygen and hydrogen and generates heat and power as by-products.

• Engadget, 2004: Casio is showing off what is supposed to be the world’s smallest fuel cell for laptops, one that is about the same size as a laptop’s lithium-ion battery but that can provide four times the juice, or up to 16 hours of power.
• Physorg.com, 2005: IBM and Sanyo Electric unveiled initial plans for a prototype micro DMFC system for IBM ThinkPad notebooks supplying up to 8 hours of power per cartridge.
• Gizmag.com, 2006: UltraCell demonstrated its UltraCell XX25 micro fuel cell system at the IDF. The UltraCell UC25 will run a laptop computer for up to two working days on a single methanol fuel cell cartridge.