reading
Article about Smart Fuel Cell GmBH at wired http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49717,00.html
sites to check
- http://www.fuelcellstore.com/ - they have both direct methanol fuel cells and direct ethanol fuel cells, but only for educational purposes. These kits don't produce a lot of electricity.
- toshiba are prototyping laptop/cellphone and truck sized fuel cells http://www.toshiba.com/taec/press/to-358.shtml
Companies
- Intensys http://www.intensys.com/ On Jan. 22 this company unveiled its new 6 kW alkaline fuel cell generator with CHP functionality. “It provides 6 kW electricity and 5,2 kW heat producing no waste except pure water. The conversion of hydrogen into energy is around 90% and the system is virtually maintenance-free.” The Intensys system runs on ambient air and industrial grade hydrogen. Hydrogen is abundantly available on Earth and safer than natural gas or gasoline.
Intensys BVBA Hoge Mauw 31 2370 Arendonk Belgium Tel.: +32 14 47 81 32 Fax: +32 14 47 82 51 e-mail: info@intensys.com
- PolyFuel http://www.polyfuel.com has developed the only commercially-viable membrane specifically for use in direct methanol fuel cell power systems. PolyFuel?üs innovative membrane technology will enable developers and manufacturers to create direct methanol fuel cell systems that deliver unlimited, unplugged runtimes for mobile computing and communication devices, such as laptop computers, tablet PCs and mobile phones. The PolyFuel? membrane will enable fuel cell systems to be smaller, lighter, and less expensive than systems made with competing membranes, thereby enabling the wide proliferation of fuel cell power systems in portable devices
PolyFuel 1245 Terra Bella Avenue Mountain View, CA 94043 Main Number: 650.429.4700 | Fax: 650.930.0219 e-mail: info@polyfuel.com
Presented the DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell) at CeBIT? in Hannover, Germany from March 12 to 19, 2004.
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/press/to-395.shtml
Contact in Belgium: http://www.toshiba-europe.com/eu/contact/details.asp?group=By+Country&subgroup=Belgium
Micro fuel cells by Neah Power http://www.neahpower.com/
http://www.azom.com/news_details.asp?newsID=488
DTI Energy, Inc., a California corporation based in Los Angeles, has acquired the exclusive worldwide licensing rights to patented Direct Methanol Fuel Cell, DMFC, technology.
On the latest development about direct methanol micro fuel cell check:
http://www.mtimicrofuelcells.com/news/
Well, here is the reality. Posted on May 27, 2004 frustration with the state of things: http://robots.net/article/1199.html
I guess we are still dreaming.
Article about Micro Fuel Cells Striving for Commercialization - February 1, 2004
Another announcement: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Jan/1023259.htm
An overview of companies involved in the development of the micro fuel cells. updated in 12/03.
http://www.fuelcells.org/info/charts/MicroTechnical.pdf http://powerelectronics.com/mag/power_micro_fuel_cells_3/
Ethanol fuel cells overview:
- Ethanol cells breaking the portable market - posted on June 17, 2004:
Research
The Body Electric
Researchers at Sandia and UT-Austin have developed prototype fuel cells that can generate electricity from glucose. Fuel cells have gotten a lot of press recently, but most of the popular designs have a serious issue. They require hydrogen as a fuel source, and while hydrogen is incredibly abundant, getting it from water, hydrocarbons, or other sources is pretty energy-intensive. As a result, hydrogen fuel cells have looked a bit less like an alternative energy that could help lessen our dependence on renewables– like solar or wind energy– than a form of premium power, a very sophisticated delivery system.
As a result, a number of researchers are working to develop fuel cells that run on more common hydrogen-rich fuels, but which still have the benefits of fuel cells (most notably their very low pollution rates). The New York Times reports on two efforts to use glucose. One team is working on creating a device that would be implanted in the body, and generate electricity by drawing on blood sugar:
Dr. [Stanley] Kravitz and fellow Sandia researchers are developing an array of tiny glass needles, as slim and sharp as a mosquito's proboscis, that could, for example, be imperceptibly “plugged in” to a soldier's arm and used to convert glucose from the human body into energy.
“Suppose you could make a patch that went on the arm and had little micro needles that didn't hurt,” Dr. Kravitz said. “Now the soldier just needs to eat an Oreo cookie to keep his radio going.”
However, they've got a lot of ground to cover before the technology can come to a body near you:
“The efficiency stinks right now,” Dr. Kravitz acknowledged, noting that so far Sandia researchers were able to produce power in the milliwatt range, enough to power a tiny light-emitting diode - while a car would require kilowatts of power.
“We've increased the efficiency by a factor of a thousand in a period of three years,” he said. “But we need to go up by a factor of a million.” (from: http://blogger.iftf.org/Future/cat_energy.html )
nik