Fuel Cell Hype Is Back
from the this-again? dept
For years, we've been hearing all about how wonderful fuel cells were going to be and how they would replace rechargeable batteries in things like mobile phones and laptops. This still doesn't make total sense. The benefit of fuel cells is that they'll last much longer than traditional rechargeable batteries. That's a good thing. However, the replaceable nature of fuel cells is a real downside. As we've pointed out before, the reason so many devices have moved to rechargeable batteries is because people don't like the idea of having to buy and tote around replacements for their devices. Being able to recharge is much more efficient. When it comes to fuel cells, though, the most likely situation will be that you'll have to buy replaceable fuel cell "cartridges" which most people will probably refer to as batteries -- since they'll basically look and act like batteries. Some companies have realized this and backed off the fuel cell bandwagon, but it looks like the hype is back again with Toshiba talking up a fuel cell-powered MP3 player and a research firm claiming the fuel cell market is about to take off. Yes, there's a place for fuel cells, but just because they last longer, it's not clear that everyone will rush out and buy them. Having rechargeables is just much easier to deal with than always having to make sure you have a fresh pack of new
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No Subject Given
Throw-away fuel cells is just a capitalist load of crap.
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2) AC wont split molecules.
3) See #1, topping it off with water is redundant.
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To make water conductive, get it out of your faucet, its conductive, trust me.
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AC
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Maybe you haven't heard of a transformer/rectifier.. AKA a power adapter. They are those niftly little devices (the thing you always lose in the bottom of your box of wires and cables) that pretty much every peice of electronics uses to convert AC into DC.
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Just looking at the pic :rolleyes:
The only downfall to this is it's explosive... but so are lithium batteries.
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Re: Just looking at the pic :rolleyes:
That's unlikely to be the way the final product is "refueled" as the article suggests. It's a bit too dangerous for the average user.
At the same time, that could be even worse, because you'd always have to carry around bottles of methanol...
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For once I disagree with TechDirt's excellent arti
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No Subject Given
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Airports
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Re: Airports
Airplanes don't allow pocket cigarette lighters, so it's unlikely that they'll allow methanol refills. 3.5mL of methanol might not sound like much, but that small amount could be used to catch other materials on fire more easily -- which isn't good on aircraft.
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fuel cells? I'm still waiting for
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eng lish
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