Fuel Cells for Laptops Due Next Week

prostoalex writes "AVC and Antig Technology will demo a production-ready fuel cell for laptops next week on CeBIT trade show. According to PC Magazine, 'the CD-ROM size fuel cell will fit within the media bay of a notebook PC, replacing the drive with additional battery power.' The fuel cell battery will last 8 hours."

hate to be a skeptic, but...

[jxyama]

There's no mention/plan on how to refill the thing. Also, it weighs a lot - more than 3 lbs, which could almost double some laptops' overall weight. It may be "production-ready" in the sense it can be manufactured and used, but I don't think it's "production-ready" in the real worls sense at all.

Fun with chemicals!

[TheDarkener]

Imagine how this will EXPLODE on the laptop market! Can you just imagine the FIRE in the eyes of who sees this? How about the PAIN existing latpop battery makers will face once this product FLUSHES through, like a HOTCAKE!!

HA! HA!.....uuugh....

Refilling?

[bflong]

From TFA:
Neither Antig nor AVC stated what the fuel-cell module would cost, nor offered any plan for consumers to refill them, however. Both companies are based in Taiwan, and company representatives were unavailable for comment.

What? I can't refill it? Whats the point then?
Nothing to see here... Please move along...

Now I gotta carry methanol?

[tinrobot]

I think it would still be more convenient to simply plug the laptop into the wall, a car outlet, or even a solar array for a recharge. If you're in the absolute middle of nowhere, you could carry an extra battery or two and it probably wouldn't be much more volume/weight than a pack of methanol containers. On top of that, hotel rooms, conference rooms, coffee shops and other places I use my laptop don't have methanol dispensers, but almost all of them have plenty of free electricity.

Besides, 8 hours is not that huge of an improvement over batteries. Fuel cells seem to have promise, but I won't be switching until I can run a laptop for days at a time.

Re:hate to be a skeptic, but...

[MP3Chuck]

I dunno ... if the 8-hour life is true I'm sure there are a good few people who would be willing to trade a few pounds for that kind of outlet-free time.

Re:More 'burned groin' stories?

[colinrichardday]

Get a laptop cooler. Even if you don't want to use the fan, it still keeps the heat away from the family jewels.

Re:I'd Buy It

[MBCook]

When they say "Watts" with computer batteries, aren't they usually referring to "Watt-hours" and not true watts? That is what I was basing things off of.

For example, my laptop's battery is supposed to be 42 Watts. System profiler tells me it is about 12v, and full charge capacity of 4100 mAh. Multiply it out and you get 49 Watt-hours. If you take into account the voltage will drop as the battery discharges and the battery becomes useless at certain voltage level, it probably has 42 Watt-hours of useful energy.

Am I wrong?

PS: My battery has cycled 87 times, and my computer does not have an UPS installed according to System Profiler (that is an option on any Mac?)

Power Brick

[shmlco]

I don't get it. Practically every manufacturer uses a different form factor for CD bays, and many more than one. How hard is it going to be to find one of these for your favorite notebook? What about notebooks that don't have swapable bays?

A better option would be to make a power "brick" with a DC output and a number of tips for popular notebooks, much as currently done for universal power supplies. You could then make a single device that works with a lot more notebooks, and have more power available as it's not constrained to fit into a particular form factor.

Re:Power Brick

[shmlco]

And while we're on the subject, "most all" notebooks these days use a power brick to supply DC power. A move which also allows them to easily use 12v DC car chargers and plug into airline power outlets. In fact, I dare say that more notebooks do that than they use a specific CD/DVD drive form factor... which is why I made the suggestion in the first place.

Re:hate to be a skeptic, but...

[ruiner13]

3 lbs full or empty? I'm guessing methanol isn't massless.