BBC Tests Pre-Commercial Toshiba Fuel Cell Laptop 138
nbannerman writes "Fuel cells have been talked about a lot recently, but Toshiba have finally demonstrated a working model. The BBC News website provides some interesting background on fuel cells, but does carrying a warning for the future; 'Toshiba's phase one fuel cell shows how near, but also how far, the version is from being a commercial reality.'"
How it works (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Summary: Not Practical :( (Score:1, Informative)
Although the non-consumable portion of the fuel cell does make up some considerable bulk, the 10 hour runtime was generated by only 100mL of fuel.
Put simply, by carrying a soda can-sized refill of methanol, there would be plenty of energy to run for over 40 hours.
If they made this device as a modular power source with 12V output, it could easily be used right now with your choice of energy-efficient devices. I personally could envision using this device to power a camera while filming in wilderness areas: the weight of the fuel cell would be minor compared to other equipment and the overall efficiency (compared to batteries) only goes up with the more fuel you pack.
An affordable technology! (Score:2, Informative)
Toshiba's fuel cell news is a little old [toshiba.co.jp], still, it's great that they're finally getting it out and available for the public. I'm surprised though that they're using one with so many moving parts - I would think that a microfluidics [wikipedia.org] approach would work too. But personally I'd love to take one apart to see how they have their membrane electrode assembly [wikipedia.org] with its proton exchange membrane [wikipedia.org]
The question is going to be whether, like some inkjet printers, others will be able to make cheaper versions of the refilling cartriges. After all, they're just holding methanol and water - not very dangerous, or explosive, and the flammability is fairly low - but drink it and you might go blind. Their expressed concern in the article is smoking and fuming when overheating, but unless it's 100% methanol, or the cell had a very high power output (with lots of heat being generated), I couldn't see it being a problem. Even in the lab I've never seen methanol smoke - it just boils or evaporates very quickly.
One question to those who know more about computers than me: how much power does an average laptop use? I'm curious to work out what kind of efficiency they're getting with their cells.