Fuel-cell powered devices getting closer

Peng Lim, the Albany, N.Y.-based company's chairman and chief executive, said MTI has been making significant progress recently. It's current methanol fuel cell can produce about three times the energy of a lithium ion battery, common in cell phones. With further improvements, the cell could one day last 10 times longer than lithium, he said.

MTI plans to introduce an external charger by late 2009 as it works with electronics manufacturers on building fuel cells into devices.

Lim said MTI has signed partnerships with the mobile-phone division of Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea, a Japan-based digital camera company and Neo Solar Co. Ltd., which makes computers that are smaller than laptops.

Lilliputian also plans to transition to embedding fuel cells in gadgets. Ramani said the company has signed commercialization agreements with three large, multinational entities he cannot yet name.

Panasonic is promising a fuel cell that can power a laptop for 20 hours on a cup of methanol, but the company says it won't hit stores until 2012.

Medis Technologies Ltd. has come out with a 1-watt liquid borohydride fuel cell recharger that can provide 30 hours of cell-phone talk time. The 24-7 Power Pack is slightly larger than a deck of cards and can't be refueled, so it has to be recycled once it's exhausted.

Not all manufacturers are sold on fuel cells, at least not in the near term.

Matt Kohut, competitive analyst for Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's No. 4 PC maker, said fuel cells will eventually power laptops but he doesn't see commercialization for at least five years.

The industry needs to unite to standardize the technology, he believes, and the DOT's limiting of fuel cartridges to smaller than 7 ounces might not provide adequate power for early devices, Kohut said.

Consumers are used to getting a free battery charge from any electrical outlet, so refill cartridges would have to be "as ubiquitous as cigarettes and bottles of Coke in every 7-Eleven" in order for fuel cells to take off, Kohut said.

Lenovo is moving toward silver-zinc batteries, which have 20 to 30 percent higher capacity than lithium ion batteries and don't wear out as fast, Kohut said.

Toshiba, which has demonstrated fuel-cell prototypes at the Consumer Electronic Show during the past few years, continues to develop the technology but doesn't have any firm dates for commercial use, said Duc Dang, group manager for product development for Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. Next year, the company hopes to begin shipping lithium batteries that charge faster.

Ramani said he understands the skepticism about fuel cells, since they've been "the technology of tomorrow" for a few years.

"We're not around the corner," Ramani said. "We're still 12 months to 15 months away from having this in consumers hands."

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