A new, smaller fuel cell has been developed which could improve the potential of using the technology in portable devices.

Matsushita Battery Industrial (MBI) has announced the creation of a new method for supplying fuel to the fuel cells, which means that the size of the devices can be reduced.

This breakthrough enables the fuel cells to be even more suited to use in portable devices such as laptops, PDAs and mobile phones, as one of the major barriers to the development of fuel cells so far has always been the need for relatively large fuel storage containers.

MBI has already successfully piloted the Direct Methanol Fuel Cell system in a laptop, with the cell able to offer average output of 13 watts and up to 20 hours of runtime.

The new fuel supply method uses a fuel cell stack, which is able to deliver the precise amount of fuel needed at the appropriate time, thereby maximising fuel utilisation.

In turn, this technology has allowed MBI to reduce a fuel cell to half the size of those that have been displayed so far, because the system wastes far less fuel.


Ÿ Adfero Ltd