While tons of research is being conducted by hundreds of companies and institutes to produce a viable device running on alternate fuel, their efforts at best have yielded conceptual solutions which are not very user friendly or market friendly. Things are about to change with the ‘UltraCell Portable Fuel Cell’.
Like all fuel cells, water is the primary source of fuel. It also uses methanol which is combined with water to deliver up to 25 watts of power from a 12 ounce mixture. All this from just a 2.7 pound device!
This new fuel cell technology is being developed by Dan Kramer, a senior research scientist at the University of Dayton Research Institute. Should these cells pass all field trials, the range of applications could be limitless. It is bound to displace conventional batteries as the primary source of portable power, as it can be recharged with just water and methanol, which are relatively easy to find when compared to a plug point.
Source : Next Energy News
