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Production Fuel Cells in 2nd Half of 2006?

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Apr 12, 2001
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ExtremeTech reports that Antig Technology and AVC Corp. will be demoing production-ready fuel cell battery technology for laptops at CeBIT next week.

The fuel cells appear to be methanol-based and provide 45 watts of power, weigh 3.7 pounds and reportedly can power a laptop for eight hours with a single cartridge. The fuel cell is the size of a CD-Rom drive and is designed to fit into the media bay of a laptop PC. These fuel cells are reportedly going into production for late 2006. No details on cost or fuel refill information is yet available. A photo is shown here.

This is not the first time fuel cell technology has been promised. NEC was reportedly expecting them in to be production in 2004.

Back in 2003, Apple was rumored to be actively pursuing fuel cell technology for the PowerBook line. Fuel Cells promise long battery life but significant technical hurdles have limited their development.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2006/03/03/production-fuel-cells-in-2nd-half-of-2006/
All Our Problems Are Solved...

There you go iGary...you no longer need to carry an extra battery...all you need is a 3.7 lb fuel cell half the size of a MacBook.

I suppose, once this type of tech. goes into production, size will possibly dwindle and efficiency climb?
 
thats pretty heavy

3.7 lbs!!!!!!???? Who wants to carry that around? I think carrying around three normal batteries would definitely be lighter
 
bluedevil14 said:
3.7 lbs!!!!!!???? Who wants to carry that around? I think carrying around three normal batteries would definitely be lighter
Click to expand...
And less expensive too!

Glad to see technology coming along. I'd still bet it is at least five years before we see any of this in a mainstream product.
 
I hope it's one of those ones that gets the Hydrogen from alcohol - study time would be great. One for me, one for you, two for me, one for you. Glug glug glug.....
 
i dunno how i feel about anything methanol near me when i'm on a flight altitude of 39,000 ft lol
 
Hahahaha.

I just have to laugh. I'm sure they'll refine this enough to be usable one day, but i just think it's funny right now...

what if you dropped your laptop?
 
I just can't see this working long term and seriously doubt Apple would deploy it. It needs to be lighter, thinner (yes, it say CD rom size but that is misleading given the picture on the site), and ideally use a better fuel source such as hydrogen fuel.
 
Blah.... Big and bulky.
Do you recharge it like a normal battery or does it have to be filled up with hydrogen?
 
kenzbud said:
Blah.... Big and bulky.
Do you recharge it like a normal battery or does it have to be filled up with hydrogen?
Click to expand...
Seriously -- did you read any of this before posting? A fuel cell generates electricity from catalyzing a hydrogen-rich, usually liquid fuel source like... the methanol mentioned in this thread, The cell is refuelled by putting in more methanol -- although practically we can expect self-contained fuel cartridges like disposable butane lighters.

Using methanol is less efficient than using pure hydrogen, but containment and recharging with pure hydrogen has some major logistical problems. The other challenge whatever the fuel is what to do with the waste heat from the process.

The point of a fuel cell is not high power, it is moderate power over a long period of time, and recharging with a chemical fuel source so you can be off the grid for days or weeks. It is not a battery replacement for desk to desk or even airline travel (and I'd like to see them answer the question of taking tiny 'jet engines' with methanol 'bombs' onto an aircraft...).
 
pdpfilms said:
what if you dropped your laptop?
Click to expand...

Explosion.jpg
 
kenzbud said:
Blah.... Big and bulky.
Do you recharge it like a normal battery or does it have to be filled up with hydrogen?
Click to expand...

Well since it's not a "battery" I don't know how you would recharge it. :rolleyes:

Actually the joke of this (if you read the article) is that they haven't designed them to be refilled by the user. So it's even worse than carrying a spare battery (besides the dismal runtime).
 
Fuel cell? That sound very cool, but from the look of the specs it seems like it's not very useful. I guess we won't be seeing these in any practical laptop for a long while.
 
i can't see this working for another decade at least.

plus they really do need to be able to be refilled by the user, or they're going to make more money selling dead badgers to shove in your battery bay.

*develops business plan* :rolleyes:
 
As I see it, the battery is the one thing holding everything back, bigger brighter screens? 'Takes more battery'. The sooner that they create something that can replace a battery the better the world will be.

I’m sure that all humans are looking at holding power in little boxes to use later the wrong way – I’m sure that there must be a totally different system - Some one just needs to invent it... good luck on that one... :confused:
 
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