Green Technology Forum

US firm MTI Micro Fuel Cells intends to be first to bring a fuel cell product to the market with a direct methanol-based device next year which will allow you to recharge a mobile phone seven times before it needs a top-up of methanol.

Albany, New York-based MTI Micro said that methanol-based fuel cells have been approved for use in aircraft by the aviation authorities in the UK, Canada and Japan and should be approved by the US Department of Transport this year.

“We see it as a universal charger,” Peng Lim, company CEO told Electronics Weekly, “there’s no more need to plug into the wall.”The firm’s approach is to use a passive, direct methanol fuel cell. A feature of the technology, which is claimed to make it easier to manufacture, is the integration of the power module with the water conditioning system. This internal flow of water takes place without the need for any pumps, complicated re-circulation loops or other micro-plumbing tools.

Called Mobion, the device has demonstrated power of over 50mW/cm sq. while producing 1.4Wh/cc of energy from the fuel.

Source: electronicsweekly.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 6:15 am and is filed under Biotechnology, Design, Energy, Information Technology, News, Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.