There is also an interesting article on Hydrogen fueled cars in the August
5, 2002 issue of Design News.

Regards,
Dan





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For those who might have missed it. The following is an interesting update.


Kind regards,
Joe

Fuel cells march toward the mainstream By Charles J. Murray
EE Times
(08/09/02 05:29 p.m. EST)After years of upping the technological ante,
suppliers of micro fuel cells may finally be preparing to make a bid for
the $10 billion-a-year rechargeable-battery market.Their efforts reached a
high-water mark this past week, as MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc. (Albany, N.Y.)
unveiled a prototype fuel cell that's small enough to ride piggyback on a
cell phone, while offering greater charging potential than a lithium ion
battery. The technology, said to be manufacturable because it employs no
pumps or water recirculation techniques, could be in production as early as
2004, the company said. MTI's 90-cubic-centimeter device, reportedly the
smallest direct-methanol fuel cell available, represents another in a
succession of fuel cell advances during the past 12 months. Late last year,
scientists at Motorola Labs (Tempe, Ariz.) demonstrated a prototype of a
miniature ceramic-based direct-methanol fuel cell, a type that converts
methanol fuel directly to elect! ricity. In April, Manhattan Scientifics
Inc. (Los Alamos, N.M.) unveiled a micro fuel cell that reportedly offers
six to nine times the energy density of lithium ion batteries. And in May,
Medis Technologies Inc. (New York) announced that its engineers had
operated a tiny laboratory fuel cell at 0.5 volt and 10,000 mA-hours
continuously for 24 hours. Casio, Toshiba and Samsung have also announced
fuel cell breakthroughs in the past six months. "There's an intense horse
race going on now in the micro fuel cell area," said Gerald Caesar, program
manager for the advanced-technology program at the U.S. Commerce
Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which
awarded $4.7 million to MTI for technology development last year. "If these
companies can get the cost down, miniaturize the technology and keep the
energy density up, they have a real chance to supplant lithium ion
technology."
Production effort
Fuel cells could represent a major step forward for the electronics
industry, since they could be used as portable chargers for
current-generation batteries or as power sources for cell phones, personal
digital assistants or, eventually, laptop computers. There, they could
eventually offer charge times anywhere from two to 10 times as long as
lithium ion batteries, now the standard power source for such systems.
"Battery chemistries are reaching a point where it's going to be hard to
enhance them much more," noted Barry Huret, president of Huret Associates
(Yardley, Pa.), a battery consultant. "Fuel cells appear to be the next
step, but it's clear that it's not going to be easy getting there." MTI's
announcement of a prototype that's believed to be the smallest
direct-methanol fuel cell yet gave rise to speculation that fuel cells may
finally be nearly ready for prime time. Direct-methanol fuel cells, which
convert methanol to electricity through the use of a catalyst, a! re highly
sought after by the electronics industry because they don't convert the
methanol to hydrogen before creating electricity. That means such products
as PDAs and cellular phones wouldn't dissipate much heat and could,
therefore, be held in hand or carried in a pocket. MTI's prototype also
added a new dimension, because the company's scientists say they have
developed a conversion technique using a polymer electrolyte membrane that
can be easily manufactured. Unlike past such techniques, MTI's system does
not need to collect water from the fuel cell's cathode and pump it back to
the anode, vastly simplifying the device's internal components. MTI's
claims of manufacturability were supported by the fact that the company is
making obvious efforts to bring its fuel cell out of the lab and into
production. DuPont (Wilmington, Del.), which has made an equity investment
in MTI, is working with the company to develop membrane electrode
assemblies and polymer-based conductive p! lates for use in its fuel cell
stack. MTI also announced last week that it has hired Alan Soucy, a former
Philips Electronics executive with experience in laptop and PDA production,
to head a Silicon Valley operation that will develop alliances with the
electronics industry.
Long-range potential
Micro fuel cells are said to offer energy densities of 1,000 watt-hour per
kilogram or greater. By comparison, the best lithium ion batteries now
range from 150 to 300 W-hr/kg. As a result, some scientists believe fuel
cells could boost the span between battery recharges by two, five or even
10 times on products such as laptops, cell phones and PDAs. "Depending on
the application, we believe that we can get a factor-of-10 improvement in
the useful life of a device between recharges," said Bill Acker, president
and chief operating officer of MTI MicroFuel Cells. MTI and other
developers say they first plan to build fuel cell-based battery rechargers,
which would recharge today's conventional batteries rather than replace
them. Ultimately, however, they foresee their products' supplanting
batteries during the next several years. "Longer-use devices, such as PDAs
and cell phone-PDA combinations, are the most attractive entry point,"
Acker said. "We're looking at high-end de! vices where the users are
willing to pay a premium for the device itself, and pay a premium for
longer usage times. When you bring out a product like this, you have to
capture those applications first." Observers say that the technology could
be especially important for high-end cell phones, which are expected to
climb from today's power draws of 1 to 3 W, up to as much as 5 W in some
cases. "Once you start adding broadband capabilities to portable devices,
you're going to dramatically reduce their run-time," said Caesar of NIST.
"Phones could drop down to as little as half an hour of run-time in a 3G
[third-generation cellular] mode." Using fuel cells instead of batteries to
power such products, users would lengthen run-times as they shorten
recharges. Fuel cells could be recharged simply by replacing a methanol
fuel cartridge that would range from thumbnail size to the size of a bar of
soap. Developers estimate that such refills would cost only about $1
apiece, and most of! that cost would be contained in the plastic enclosure
holding the methanol.
Hurdles ahead
Many experts contend, however, that fuel cell technology must cross several
hurdles before it reaches the electronics mainstream. One key area of
technical concentration is in their ability to handle temperature extremes
as well as batteries currently do. "Fuel cell catalysts don't operate very
well in the cold, nor do they perform very well in extreme dry climates,"
said Bob Hockaday, chief fuel cell scientist for Manhattan Scientifics.
"That's why some of the wild enthusiasm to put them right into electronic
products has died down a little. That may still be a couple of years away."
Experts also say that the dream of fuel cell-based notebook computers may
still be a few years out. "If you look at how people use notebook
computers, you find that most of them don't run extensively on battery
power," said battery consultant Huret. "Most of the time, notebook
computers are plugged in, so the question could come down to how much more
it will cost to give consumers the extra! charge time." Fuel cell makers
say they still don't have a handle on how much the devices would add to the
cost of a cell phone or laptop. As a result, manufacturers expect their
technology to initially come out on higher-end products, where its cost can
be more easily absorbed. They say they also need to tread lightly in the
beginning while they build public confidence. "The general public and the
OEM engineers need to get comfortable with it first," said Acker of MTI.
"The timing of our product rollout is going to be tied to developing the
proper mind-set."