Toshiba Integrates Prototypes Fuel Cell Into Mobile Audio Players

**hnelson59** · 09-17-05, 04:28 PM

Toshiba Integrates Prototypes Fuel Cell Into Mobile Audio Players

Now this is what I'm talking about! Lots of play time here - 35 to 60 hours. This would be a welcome addition to the handheld world where we all clamor for longer battery life - let's face it, the biggest drawback to the X50v has and will continue to be the minimal battery life. It will be interesting to see if this technology does find its way into the handheld market. I certainly hope it does. And how much will concentrated methanol cost anyway? :)

"Toshiba Corporation has developed two prototype direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) units and begun tests to validate their operation with mobile audio players. Each unit integrates the DMFC that Toshiba announced in June 2004 as the smallest ones available.

The new fuel cell units have an output power of 100mW and 300mW and have been applied to a flash-memory-based digital audio player and an HDD-based digital audio player, respectively"

You can check out the entire article on Geekzone by clicking here.

09-17-05, 04:43 PM

Just think, when your filling your car up you can be filling your PDA up at the same time on a mini pump!

NoWire · 09-17-05, 04:45 PM

Isn't that weird that cars is going electric, and electronics is going to fuel...

:D

09-17-05, 05:27 PM

well this isnt combustion it is just a chemcial reaction that yields electricity

R1OneWheel · 09-17-05, 05:54 PM

i guess no smoking within 50ft. :)

psionandy · 09-17-05, 06:00 PM

wonder how long it is before i can buy anything with a fuel cell?

stevenator65 · 09-17-05, 06:03 PM

Awesome stuff, nelson. Great find.

transcout · 09-17-05, 06:11 PM

Hmm.. Does no-one see the downside of this?
When i get home, I drop my PDA in the cradle, and it's ready for tomorrow.

With this, I will have to faff around putting methanol in it.. Probably spilling it all over the screen several times a week. I will run out of methanol, and won't be able to find a tech-y shop nearly that sells it. Then maybe one day it will leak in my pocket, and I get a big methanol stain on my suit. It will smell of methanol all the time, and so will my hands..

I really don't think it will be all that great..

09-17-05, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by transcout

Hmm.. Does no-one see the downside of this?
When i get home, I drop my PDA in the cradle, and it's ready for tomorrow.

With this, I will have to faff around putting methanol in it.. Probably spilling it all over the screen several times a week. I will run out of methanol, and won't be able to find a tech-y shop nearly that sells it. Then maybe one day it will leak in my pocket, and I get a big methanol stain on my suit. It will smell of methanol all the time, and so will my hands..

I really don't think it will be all that great..

but i guess you're ok walking around with that lighter in your pocket right? my point is that when any of the manufacturers decide to put any of these products to market im sure their concern is safety and ease of use. As far as the future of products using fuel cells, im sure they'll make some sort of cartridges that are user refillable and hot swapable so you wont have to directly fill the device, kinda like batteries filled with methanol instead of Li ion's.

09-17-05, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by transcout

Hmm.. Does no-one see the downside of this?
When i get home, I drop my PDA in the cradle, and it's ready for tomorrow.

With this, I will have to faff around putting methanol in it.. Probably spilling it all over the screen several times a week. I will run out of methanol, and won't be able to find a tech-y shop nearly that sells it. Then maybe one day it will leak in my pocket, and I get a big methanol stain on my suit. It will smell of methanol all the time, and so will my hands..

I really don't think it will be all that great..

Good points. If a local store did not have the fuel, then it would have to be shipped, which is a lot slower than than a hour-long charge.

09-17-05, 07:21 PM

methonol is extremely cheap to produce (ie. landfills, organic waste) and with the perfection of and hopeful acceptance of fuel cell powered vehicals and devices, there would be no reason for a 30% solution of methonol to be hard to come by and avalible easily(maybe gas stations eventually)

edit: the only real problem i see is exhaust. it' gotta let that h2o out somewhere.

09-17-05, 07:26 PM

I greatly welcome the longer battery life that comes with the use of a fuel cell. Though I do have concerns over purchasing a consumable product to power my portable devices. In the long run, I would not be surprised if the cost to the consumer to keep their unit powered would be higher than having to purchase a second or replacement battery over the life of the unit.

im_dragon · 09-17-05, 07:33 PM

transcout,
Very smart people have been researching this for years to make it viable for the mass (I first heard about this technology 2-3 yrs ago).

I am sure they'll devise a way to fill the fuel tank w/o any spilling and prevent leaking with special standardized nozzle, valves, etc.

By the time they standardize the methanol fuel cells, and they become widely available, fuel bottles should be available at the same stores that currently sell regular batteries.

Methanol fuel cell should be much lighter than Lithium Ion battery of the same size, and has 10 times the capacity. It's NOT meant to replace Lithium Ion, or current battery technology. It's meant to complement it.

You can still use your standard battery for daily cradle charge. Then when you have to go for a long trip w/o battery charging capability, you can pop in your fuel cell, and bring along a small fuel bottle.

I read somewhere a long time ago that a gallon of methanol could power an average MP3 player for 10 years on average use. With that, your Axim can probably run for 6 months away from civilization on one gallon (just my guess based on the MP3 figure, but real scientific data shouldn't be far off).

You see, it'll be great.

agashka · 09-17-05, 07:46 PM

Yeah that would be cool , you pass at Gas Station , and ask "could you fill me this for 5cent pls?"

medevo · 09-17-05, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by transcout

Hmm.. Does no-one see the downside of this?
When i get home, I drop my PDA in the cradle, and it's ready for tomorrow.

With this, I will have to faff around putting methanol in it.. Probably spilling it all over the screen several times a week. I will run out of methanol, and won't be able to find a tech-y shop nearly that sells it. Then maybe one day it will leak in my pocket, and I get a big methanol stain on my suit. It will smell of methanol all the time, and so will my hands..

I really don't think it will be all that great..

All of which are reasonable problems with the technology. What I expect for more "consumer level" devices is a "methanol battery". This could be a fuel cell and a sealed fuel tank in a regular battery size (AA ext) or just the fuel and the fuel cell is built into the device.

I think you could draw a parallel to older car batteries that required distilled water to be added to make up for hydrogen gas that was created during the galvanic reaction. Newer Sealed Lead Acid battery design's (some of which are less efficient then the refillable design's) do not require any maintaining.

The first generation of fuel cell technology will require manual refilling (especially for cars) but convince will win out eventually with sealed one-use fuel blocks or semi-refillable devices.

Why is portable technology moving to fuel cells you ask?
Take for example the 3.7V 1100mA/h battery that the x50v comes with. It stores about 14652 joules. Methanol has an enthalpy of combustion (essentially how much energy can liberated from burning it) of -239KJ/Mol. Assuming a perfect system 2.5mL (2 grams) of methanol has the same stored energy as the x50v battery.

The energy density (critical for small devices) of methanol is 22MJ/Kg. The BEST lithium based batteries are just peaking over 1MJ/Kg. The reason cars are moving to batteries is that power consumption in a car demanded high energy of fuels for along time, but technology has made it so batteries can meet the energy needs of the car. Opposite of this, fuel cells and combustion devices previously could not fit in handheld applications.

Not linked in this article, but another fuel cell Toshiba has got in testing is about the size of a pack of gum (0.5544m^3) and is 8.5g with 2mL of methanol in a tank. It provides 8856 joules on one tank. Its new technology, it only has an energy density of about 1MJ/Kg but this is a prototype and that number should grow rapidly.

Medevo