NEC Gasses Up 40-Hour Notebook Fuel Cell

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-1022130.html' target='_blank'>http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-1022130.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Japanese chips-to-computers giant NEC said Monday that it has developed a small fuel cell that will dramatically improve the battery life of notebooks and that the company aims to test on the market within two years. 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 representative said. <br /><br />The company is locked in fierce competition with domestic rivals such as Toshiba, as well as United States and South Korean rivals that are rushing to bring fuel-cell technology for notebooks to the mass market. NEC aims to test the market in 2004, introducing a notebook that has a built-in fuel-cell battery with a life of five hours, the representative said."<br /><br />More talk about fuel cells, but at least the dates aren't slipping - I've been hearing 2004 for quite some time, and it's creeping up on us...

[JonnoB]

High-capacity refillable batteries that you pay for on each charge or lower-capacity rechargable batteries that you charge for pennies. Will consumers have a choice or will fuel cells be thrust upon us? Someone, tell me all of the virtues of fuel cells again...

[maximus]

Fuel cells, which take in hydrogen and oxygen and turn them into electricity, do not need recharging like regular batteries. They require a refill of fuel such as hydrogen gas or liquid methanol in order to keep operating.

Then it will not pass the security screening at airports (No flammable material on board) .... I personally wouldnt want to carry a bag of hydrogen on my pocket, no matter how long this 'hydrogen bag' will provide power to my axim. I'd rather use my older 3400mAH battery that I can charge for free at home ....

[Sven Johannsen]

[quote] I'd rather use my older 3400mAH battery that I can charge for free at home ....

Ahh, but it isn't free at home (unless your parents are paying for the electricity). If you stay at an Embassy Suites, however you can recharge your PPC between 5-7 every evening for free.

[droppedd]

that is interesting with the security at airports... i never thought about that.

Anyways, outside of a few portable electronics sites, most people aren't thinking about benefits to electronics from fuel cells - its big "killer app" is automobiles, where it promises pollution-free transportation. (oh and plugging your battery into an outlet is hardly pollution-free - your energy probably came from a dirty electricity plant of some sort).

But recently the claims of hydrogen fuel components have come under heavy scrutiny, with many scientists claiming that at least with current designs and margins of error for leakage and the like, fuel cell engines may be no cleaner than modern fossil fuel engines.
But longer life in portable devices is promising - if they can work through security issues at airports, and recharging issues. Would it be theoretically possible to have a dual battery - that is, you can swap in a regular battery for use on the plane? For that matter, could you retrofit devices with "battery packs" that contain a fuel cell with all necessary power conversion integrated?

[maximus]

Coming from photography background, I have already made a battery pack for my axim. It consist of 3 D sized 11.000 mAH niMH batteries ...

[Bruno Figueiredo]

It consist of 3 D sized 11.000 mAH niMH batteries ...

Come again?... What the hell are you talking about? Please explain how you did that...

OTOH, I think fuel cells are not quite the next thing (having to recharge the battery with a liquid? :roll: Where does the liquid I put there goes? Does it come with an exhaust pipe? Peewwoo :razz: ).

I think microengines are the way to go. Much more power, tiny footprint.
Or more powerfull conventional batteries...

Just imagine. Conventional 50.000 mAH batteries... A full month of use for your PDA with every charge... Weeks for your laptop... Oh that would be sweeeeet...

[MooseMaster]

So now our laptops will spew out water from an exhaust pipe? Or will it just built it all up in a small container that we have to dump every couple hours?

Fuel cells in my electronics? No thanks!!! Fuel cell for my car ... perhaps.

With the money they're spending on fuel cell research fossil fuel engines could be three times as efficient if the same were spent on them. My 160hp car gets 38mpg on average. I'd say that's heading in the right direction, more so than a 90hp fuel cell getting a measily 52mpg. And what happens when I get into a bad wreck on the interstate? Hindenburg number 2?

[iomatic]

2004 for a battery life of 5 hours? Get an Apple PowerBook from 2002, and you'll have that capacity, plus a real OS.

sorry, couldn't resist.

[cmariotti]

Okay, so maybe I am just being crazy, but I have been watching progress on a lot of fuel cell technologies and a lot of the "portable" ones seem to be rather dangerous looking in concept.

Is it me or will there be a problem bringing on a fuel cell that contains a combustable onto an airline so you can watch a DVD on your laptop mid-flight. Couldn't it be easily adaptable to be a mini-bomb? Enough to blow off a finger...

I mean, these are the same airlines that have yet to provide a power plug in the regular seating area due to potential risks (sparks)... I literally don't think this is going to "fly"... it has to be a "safe" technology (even if it is safe in engineering). Whomever finds that technology will win the portable fuel cell game.

Maybe I'm being a fool...

[maximus]

Just imagine. Conventional 50.000 mAH batteries... A full month of use for your PDA with every charge... Weeks for your laptop... Oh that would be sweeeeet...

Actually, you dont have to wait that long for that technology ... You should hookup your PPC with a car battery (with simple voltage dividing circuit) .. and put the car battery in your backpack. ha ha ha.

[Will T Smith]

that is interesting with the security at airports... i never thought about that.

Anyways, outside of a few portable electronics sites, most people aren't thinking about benefits to electronics from fuel cells - its big "killer app" is automobiles, where it promises pollution-free transportation. (oh and plugging your battery into an outlet is hardly pollution-free - your energy probably came from a dirty electricity plant of some sort).

But recently the claims of hydrogen fuel components have come under heavy scrutiny, with many scientists claiming that at least with current designs and margins of error for leakage and the like, fuel cell engines may be no cleaner than modern fossil fuel engines.
But longer life in portable devices is promising - if they can work through security issues at airports, and recharging issues. Would it be theoretically possible to have a dual battery - that is, you can swap in a regular battery for use on the plane? For that matter, could you retrofit devices with "battery packs" that contain a fuel cell with all necessary power conversion integrated?

Hydrogen isn't really a "clean" fuel source unless the hydrogen is generated from renewable energy sources. If it's generated by burning fossil fuels, you've only moved the source of the pollution, not eliminated it.

In the mean time, we would all do well to encourage our president to push raising CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards to something respectable AND include SUVs and light trucks in the computation. Doing so would radically cut polution and radically lower our dependence on foreign energy production.

Back to the fuel cells themselves. The fact that they provide mondo laptop life is enough. My fear would be that fuel cell manufacturers would patent their cartridge/cell interface (like intel and it's busses, and HP and it's print cartridges). This would effectively stop competition in fuel cartridge provider market.

If they want the technology to be truly successful. They will team up and make standard size energy cartridges that can be used to power a vast array of devices just like A, AA, etc... do today. Competition would occur at producing high-yield fuel converters. Likewise, fuel manufacturers would strive to produced the purist possible fuels that would keep cells humming without damage.

In any case, if they do decide to go proprietary, I'm sure that "refill" outfits will spring up. Just like print cartridges, the vessels could be "drilled and re-filled".

Regarding fuel cells leaking, thats really not a problem. The fuel cells being discussed all involve organic hydrocarbon derivatives like methonal. These substances are all environmentally benign (provided you don't leak extraordinary amounts (Exxon Valdeez)). Their may be some "in-between" substances that are involved in the process of liberating the hydrogen from the soup, namely carbon. But my understanding is the amounts were talking about are very small when compared to gasoline and traditional combustion engines.

Overall, I believe fuel cells will be a welcome technology. By no means are they a panacea. But they do provide more options and an avenue to be greener.

[Will T Smith]

So now our laptops will spew out water from an exhaust pipe? Or will it just built it all up in a small container that we have to dump every couple hours?


There is an distinct advantage to a water by-product in a notebook. You can channel a heat pipe from the CPU to the water exhaust and get ...

STEAM!!!!

The homo-sapien tried and true methodology for effectively venting heat. Water carries it away WAY more effectively than dry air.

[Will T Smith]

Is it me or will there be a problem bringing on a fuel cell that contains a combustable onto an airline so you can watch a DVD on your laptop mid-flight. Couldn't it be easily adaptable to be a mini-bomb? Enough to blow off a finger...

...

Ouch an entire finger ;-)

Actually, is it just me, or do the airlines serve enough alcohol on-board to fuel a pre-built molotof cocktail bomb in flight?????

Live off the land, no methanol fuel cell needed.

BTW, I hope that homeland security doesn't raid me now for thinking up some way to hijack airplanes thats more creative than box-cutters.