Are Fuel Cells Actually Coming?

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&ncid=581&e=3&u=/nm/20030630/tc_nm/tech_japan_nec_dc' target='_blank'>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...ch_japan_nec_dc</a><br /><br /></div>"Japanese chips-to-computers giant NEC Corp (6701.T) said on Monday it has developed a small fuel cell, which it aims to test on the market within two years, that will dramatically improve the battery life of notebook computers. The fuel cell would enable notebooks to operate for 40 consecutive hours, or around 10 times the life of regular lithium-ion batteries, a company spokesman said."<br /><br />Within 2 years? That might be the first time I've heard a remotely definitive date. Moreover, Toshiba apparently claims in the same article that they'll release a fuel cell notebook by 2004. Let's see if it actually happens, or if fuel cells eclipse the OQO as the most vaporware product ever. :lol:

[garrans]

Actually aren't fuel cells by definition Vaporware 8O .... because they create water vapor as a byproduct of the process :mrgreen:

[droppedd]

problem with fuel cells is still gonna be refilling them. they're going to be a bitch and a half to deal with until refills are easily available at the corner grocery store the way AAs and AAAs are today - or till everyone has fuel cell lines coming into their house the way gas lines do today. Now that will be cool.

I wonder if they'll develop a few standard connector sizes (for plugging in the hose or whatever for refills)? i'd hate to have to buy proprietary hoses for each device :-)

[gorkon280]

This is my complaint with almost all lithium ion bateries now. Every device has a charger and a different battery form factor. Can we please now get back to where we have one standard instead of 40 kinds of standards or more? If you make it small enough, it could go across devices even. That and those lithium ions are pricey when you need to get a new one for your laptop. I know, the cells inside are standard, but that is not the point! Why must everything be about the accessory game? Does not every laptop user like to run off of batteries for more than an hour or so? This is my hope for fuel cells. I know, some companies make money on selling you acessories, but can they not include BASICS? I ain't talking about including a vaja case, but basic protection, basic accessories to do the common things...a modem, this and that.... PC's started this way so PDA's do too? I guess in the future, all PDA's will come with as much as a PC now. I mean, except for those of us that like/want different mice or specific components, 95 percent of us are happy to get what we get with a PC. Same goes with what you do get with a pda. I bet some palm users have no clue they can get a io device so they can check their e-mail right where they are!

[Excalliber]

They could just manufacture the cells in a standard size, then you take them out of the device and drop them into a recharging cradle wich would automatically refill it, except not in hours but in seconds. bwahaha... Maybe i should patent that :lol:

[ricksfiona]

I figure that if I get approximately 40 hours to use my laptop, I got PLENTY of time to swap in a spare and get the original refilled. I just can't imagine a trip that I would need THAT many hours of battery time. Afterr all, you'll probably be in your hotel room doing your work there most of the time, with an AC adapter plugged into the outlet.
Sure it would be ideal to run strictly on battery, but so are electric cars.... I'm always up for improving technology, but people have been doing 'okay' with 2 - 4 hour battery times for years. 40 hours? It's like upgrading from a Saturn to a Ferrari. If only hard disk/storage technology made a leap forward like that....

We're still talking at least 2 years away and anything can happen during that time. Maybe there will be some more infrastructure by then. Regardless, I'll just keep an extra fuel cell ready to go.

[GoldKey]

I would not want to have to take them out to refill. Ideally, they could be refilled on the fly so I would not have to shut down whatever device I was using.


I'd really like an external fuel cell that could be used with adapters, etc to power/charge lots of existing devices. While long term it would be great to have this integrated into all sorts of stuff, this would give me the ability to use this technology without having to buy all new equipment.

[droppedd]

i think you'd need at least a few different sizes for the connectors to refill. After all, the connector you'd need to refill an automobile's fuel cell would probably be larger than the entire battery on a pocket PC... although the cradle is a good idea. The only problem is that you have to be much more certain about the seal between the device and charger/filler - wouldn't want a hydrogen leak, now, would we? :idontthinkso:

[srs]

If only hard disk/storage technology made a leap forward like that....

huh ? I believe hd technology (size, capacity) is beating moores law. maybe you meant the transition to solid state memory, but the hard drives themselves are improving at a tremendous rate.

[ricksfiona]

When referring to hd technology making leaps, I'm talking speed, not capacity. Hard drive speed is THE bottleneck in comptuers. No if's, and's or but's about that one.