Originally posted by matznentosh
I think that is a very important point. Also, no one has mentioned what direct waste gas or whatever is produced by methanol fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells make water. But Methane would have to make some sort of carbon product, probably CO2, which would then be another source of greenhouse gases.
The issues surrounding Methanol and it's environmental effects are very real--it's usually refined from natural gas at this point, meaning that it is a fossil fuel like any other, and of course it will produce CO2 when used in a fuel cell. (
http://www.methanex.com/)
It does, however, burn relatively cleanly (especially in a fuel cell), and has some advantages over gasoline as a fuel. More importantly, if used with a fuel cell, it should be more efficient and clean burning than direct burning of the fuel.
In any case, though, as a replacement for gasoline and other petrolium fuels on a large scale, methanol would be a stopgap measure at best, and a CO2 polluter in green clothing at worst. Pure hydrogen, electrolyzed from water using renewable sources, is the only viable fuel cell-based option in the long term.
But as far as a laptop goes, the situation is entirely different--you're dealing with a very small amount of fuel (even if we're talking about the millions of laptops in the world put together), and a market where performance is as important as anything else.
Besides, look at the current alternative: burning oil, coal, or natural gas in a semi-efficient process (~50%), then piping the power through miles of power lines (line losses), then converting it to DC (not all that efficient), then charging a battery (not 100% efficient), then getting that power back out of the battery and using it. We're hardly talking about efficient conversion from fossil fuel to portable power here, when you look at the grand scheme of things.
I'd say methanol-fired laptops have a place, at least as a transition technology. Besides, it's not like the technology will park there permanantly, and laptops have a much shorter useful life than, say, a car or a power plant, so even if the technology is eventually replaced by something better the old ones won't be floating around all that long.
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