03-10-2004, 08:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,968
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Batteries Trounced By Miniature Fuel Cells?
"A trick that boosts the power of miniature hydrogen fuel cells by up to 50 per cent has been revealed by US researchers. Such fuel cells could help keep portable gadgets up and running...". This news comes especially after cellphone giant Nokia warned that battery technology is not keeping up with advances in phones (and cameras).
Their method of gaining better performance and longer life is by increasing efficiency by shrinking the channels that deliver fuel to "the cell's heart". However, it isn't quite time to rush to the stores yet, since, at present, this seems to work only with hydrogen fuel cells, and as you may or may not know, liquid methanol is currently the fuel of choice.
This is an interesting article as it not only talks about the fuel cell technology and how it works, but also the pros and cons of the above mentioned strategy of shrinking the delivery channels. I did not know much about fuel cell at all before reading this article, but it is good to know that there are some alternative methods being researched that would extend the life of our devices. On my recent trip to Seattle, I had to carry 6 separate chargers for my different electronic devices (cell phone, camera, mp3/ogg player, iPaq, laptop and toothbrush), whereas I could really have used some of that space :roll:.
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