New consumer fuel cell is close to market

By: T.O. Whenham

There has been a lot of buzz in the last couple of weeks about Direct Methanol Fuel Cells. Panasonic was one of the companies with a prototype to show off and smaller, consumer-ready items in the works. Well, it turns out that DMFCs aren’t the only item on the horizon. In fact, one alternative will be ready for us well before the DMFCs. Medis Technology is readying for market a disposable fuel cell powered by a borohydride alkaline solution instead of methanol.

The Medis fuel cells will be able to provide you with 30 hours of talk time for your mobile phone or 60 hours for your MP3 player. When all the juice has been sucked out of the cell it looks like you just chuck it and buy a new one. It might sound like it would hurt to throw something like that away, but it will cost less than $20, so it won’t be too bad. You’ll have to wait until the end of the year to get one (or several) of your own, though.

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