Researchers float dry fuel cells for mobile apps
EETimes.com - Researchers float dry fuel cells for mobile apps: "Peterborough, N.H. — Touted as a future solution to automobile pollution, fuel cell technology may in the interim solve the portable-power problem that is pivotal to miniaturizing electronic systems. A number of companies and research groups are reporting steady progress in scaling down fuel cells while engineering systems that can use readily available fuels like methanol.
Recent developments at UltraCell Corp., Purdue University and the Georgia Institute of Technology are encouraging speculation that mini fuel cells may emerge as a rival to the battery in the next few years.
UltraCell (Livermore, Calif.) has announced a compact unit, about the size of a paperback book, that can generate 25 watts of power from small fuel canisters. The system was developed under a government contract to power field systems for the Army. A commercial version will be out next year, said William Hill, UltraCell's vice president of marketing.
Research at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.), meanwhile, has turned up an alternative-fuel scheme that could simplify the most difficult area of fuel cell design: the hydrogen generation system. The Purdue researchers added a dash of nanotechnology to two known processes, each of which had serious drawbacks, to create a solid-state pellet system that is very efficient at generating hydrogen.
Progress on more-efficient cell designs using a higher-temperature polymer system has been reported from a project at Georgia Tech (Atlanta). A new chemical system has made it possible for the membranes used in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) cells to operate without water, a simplification that has also come out of UltraCell's methanol-based system. "
Recent developments at UltraCell Corp., Purdue University and the Georgia Institute of Technology are encouraging speculation that mini fuel cells may emerge as a rival to the battery in the next few years.
UltraCell (Livermore, Calif.) has announced a compact unit, about the size of a paperback book, that can generate 25 watts of power from small fuel canisters. The system was developed under a government contract to power field systems for the Army. A commercial version will be out next year, said William Hill, UltraCell's vice president of marketing.
Research at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.), meanwhile, has turned up an alternative-fuel scheme that could simplify the most difficult area of fuel cell design: the hydrogen generation system. The Purdue researchers added a dash of nanotechnology to two known processes, each of which had serious drawbacks, to create a solid-state pellet system that is very efficient at generating hydrogen.
Progress on more-efficient cell designs using a higher-temperature polymer system has been reported from a project at Georgia Tech (Atlanta). A new chemical system has made it possible for the membranes used in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) cells to operate without water, a simplification that has also come out of UltraCell's methanol-based system. "
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