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MTI Micro's prototype camera power-pack
NEWS portable & micro
Millennium to testmarket light, charger
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ew Jersey-based Millennium Cell has been awarded funding that will help it test-market its light-emitting diode (LED) light and device charger. The award is part of phase II of the Greater Columbia Fuel Cell Challenge, sponsored by the University of South Carolina (USC)’s Columbia Fuel Cell Collaborative. Gecko Energy Technologies – a subsidiary of Millennium – will test-market the product, which uses Millennium Cell’s PowerSkin fuel cells and Hydrogen on Demand fuel system to provide long-lasting power to small, portable lighting units and simultaneously charge portable devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants. The design of this particular product concept was the result of extensive market research, says Millennium, including product concept validation at last year’s Governor’s Hurricane Conference in Florida, and numerous discussions with key first-responders and emergency power product distributors. Millennium will establish operations for this market test at USC’s ‘technology incubator’, eventually moving into Innovista, a research environment established at the university. Evaluation will be conducted with assistance from the City of Columbia, the USC School of Business and Greenway Energy LLC. Gecko’s long-term opportunities involve establishing manufacturing operations, product roll-out and workforce expansion in South Carolina to develop and manufacture PowerSkin fuel cell products. The USC Columbia Fuel Cell Collaborative was formed by USC, the City of Columbia, EngenuitySC and the South Carolina Research Authority to position Columbia as a leader in the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology. Its mission is to attract private sector partners, top scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators to the region, and to collaborate with private sector companies from all areas of the fuel cell market for the deployment of alternative energy technologies into multiple city, university and commercial applications throughout the region.
Contact: Millennium Cell Inc, Eatontown, New Jersey, USA. Tel: +1 Tel: +1 732 542 4000, www.millenniumcell.com For more on the Greater Columbia Fuel Cell Challenge, go to: www.fuelcellchallenge.com
6
Fuel Cells Bulletin
PolyFuel closing on working prototype
C
alifornia-based PolyFuel reports that it has completed the penultimate stage of its multi-year development plan to commercialize fuel cell power supplies for notebook PCs. The firm says it has fundamentally solved the by-product water management problem that has long plagued portable fuel cell developers for nearly a decade. The end-point of PolyFuel’s five-step ‘road map’ is a working prototype designed to be integrated with a representative notebook PC, and which surpasses the performance of today’s lithium-ion batteries in terms of run-time versus size and weight. The underlying technology then would be made available to the firm’s customers and partners as a reference design. The company has engineered an entirely new MEA design, and a new system design that not only reduces the amount of water produced (while the fuel cell is operating), but recycles a significant amount of that water directly back through the membrane to the fuel side, where it is reused to generate more electricity. This approach allows the water to be kept in balance throughout the system. The result is a considerable simplification in the design of the fuel cell system – eliminating components, reducing overall size and weight, and lowering cost. This is significant, as the primary difficulty with fuel cells has been to make them small enough to be able to be integrated into the notebook PC itself. PolyFuel has now met the first four stages of its development plan. In particular, multiple ‘proof of concept’ fuel cells incorporating the membrane, MEA and other newly engineered system components have been running for hundreds of hours under the firm’s dramatically simplified system design and target operating conditions.
Contact: PolyFuel Inc, Mountain View, California, USA. Tel: +1 650 429 4700, www.polyfuel.com
MTI Micro’s prototype camera power-pack
T
he recent Fuel Cell Expo in Tokyo saw US-based MTI Micro Fuel Cells show a prototype power-pack aimed at the digital camera market. The firm’s
Mobion-powered direct methanol fuel cell camera-grip prototype works like a camera battery-pack grip for digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. The power pack is designed to provide twice as much energy as existing camera battery-pack grips of the same size. It can also be refilled with methanol for instant power, allowing photographers the freedom to use the camera anytime, anywhere, without having to recharge from a wall outlet. ‘Digital cameras make up the second-largest revenue segment in the consumer lithium-ion battery market,’ says Peng Lim, CEO of MTI. ‘With more advanced features being designed into new models, such as high-definition video recording and playback, battery life becomes a key issue. This camera grip prototype demonstrates our ability to remove power consumption issues for manufacturers.’ Today’s DSLR cameras are increasingly being purchased by ‘average’ consumers, and MTI Micro says that its prototype addresses the power demands of this widening market segment. In 2007 around six million DSLRs were shipped that are compatible with MTI Micro’s prototype, and the market is expected to continue to grow over the next several years. In addition to a demonstration featuring the company’s most recent Mobion-powered external power pack chargers, a new embedded fuel cell concept model was also on display that demonstrates the way in which MTI Micro’s technology can be potentially integrated into future portable electronic devices. MTI Micro, a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Inc, says that its strategy is to enter the market in 2009 with Mobion products designed for use in the consumer electronics industry for applications such as cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs, MP3 players and other handheld electronic devices. Contact: MTI Micro Fuel Cells Inc, Albany, New York, USA. Tel: +1 518 533 2222, www.mtimicrofuelcells.com
CMR demos systems for portable devices
U
K-based CMR Fuel Cells unveiled two new application-specific demonstration systems at the recent Fuel Cell Expo in Tokyo. These systems are based on the company’s high power density direct methanol stacks, which are tailored for use in PDAs and media players that require 3 W of electrical power, and for laptop computers which need 25 W.
April 2008
Millennium to testmarket light, charger
N
ew Jersey-based Millennium Cell has been awarded funding that will help it test-market its light-emitting diode (LED) light and device charger. The award is part of phase II of the Greater Columbia Fuel Cell Challenge, sponsored by the University of South Carolina (USC)’s Columbia Fuel Cell Collaborative. Gecko Energy Technologies – a subsidiary of Millennium – will test-market the product, which uses Millennium Cell’s PowerSkin fuel cells and Hydrogen on Demand fuel system to provide long-lasting power to small, portable lighting units and simultaneously charge portable devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants. The design of this particular product concept was the result of extensive market research, says Millennium, including product concept validation at last year’s Governor’s Hurricane Conference in Florida, and numerous discussions with key first-responders and emergency power product distributors. Millennium will establish operations for this market test at USC’s ‘technology incubator’, eventually moving into Innovista, a research environment established at the university. Evaluation will be conducted with assistance from the City of Columbia, the USC School of Business and Greenway Energy LLC. Gecko’s long-term opportunities involve establishing manufacturing operations, product roll-out and workforce expansion in South Carolina to develop and manufacture PowerSkin fuel cell products. The USC Columbia Fuel Cell Collaborative was formed by USC, the City of Columbia, EngenuitySC and the South Carolina Research Authority to position Columbia as a leader in the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology. Its mission is to attract private sector partners, top scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators to the region, and to collaborate with private sector companies from all areas of the fuel cell market for the deployment of alternative energy technologies into multiple city, university and commercial applications throughout the region.
Contact: Millennium Cell Inc, Eatontown, New Jersey, USA. Tel: +1 Tel: +1 732 542 4000, www.millenniumcell.com For more on the Greater Columbia Fuel Cell Challenge, go to: www.fuelcellchallenge.com
6
Fuel Cells Bulletin
PolyFuel closing on working prototype
C
alifornia-based PolyFuel reports that it has completed the penultimate stage of its multi-year development plan to commercialize fuel cell power supplies for notebook PCs. The firm says it has fundamentally solved the by-product water management problem that has long plagued portable fuel cell developers for nearly a decade. The end-point of PolyFuel’s five-step ‘road map’ is a working prototype designed to be integrated with a representative notebook PC, and which surpasses the performance of today’s lithium-ion batteries in terms of run-time versus size and weight. The underlying technology then would be made available to the firm’s customers and partners as a reference design. The company has engineered an entirely new MEA design, and a new system design that not only reduces the amount of water produced (while the fuel cell is operating), but recycles a significant amount of that water directly back through the membrane to the fuel side, where it is reused to generate more electricity. This approach allows the water to be kept in balance throughout the system. The result is a considerable simplification in the design of the fuel cell system – eliminating components, reducing overall size and weight, and lowering cost. This is significant, as the primary difficulty with fuel cells has been to make them small enough to be able to be integrated into the notebook PC itself. PolyFuel has now met the first four stages of its development plan. In particular, multiple ‘proof of concept’ fuel cells incorporating the membrane, MEA and other newly engineered system components have been running for hundreds of hours under the firm’s dramatically simplified system design and target operating conditions.
Contact: PolyFuel Inc, Mountain View, California, USA. Tel: +1 650 429 4700, www.polyfuel.com
MTI Micro’s prototype camera power-pack
T
he recent Fuel Cell Expo in Tokyo saw US-based MTI Micro Fuel Cells show a prototype power-pack aimed at the digital camera market. The firm’s
Mobion-powered direct methanol fuel cell camera-grip prototype works like a camera battery-pack grip for digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. The power pack is designed to provide twice as much energy as existing camera battery-pack grips of the same size. It can also be refilled with methanol for instant power, allowing photographers the freedom to use the camera anytime, anywhere, without having to recharge from a wall outlet. ‘Digital cameras make up the second-largest revenue segment in the consumer lithium-ion battery market,’ says Peng Lim, CEO of MTI. ‘With more advanced features being designed into new models, such as high-definition video recording and playback, battery life becomes a key issue. This camera grip prototype demonstrates our ability to remove power consumption issues for manufacturers.’ Today’s DSLR cameras are increasingly being purchased by ‘average’ consumers, and MTI Micro says that its prototype addresses the power demands of this widening market segment. In 2007 around six million DSLRs were shipped that are compatible with MTI Micro’s prototype, and the market is expected to continue to grow over the next several years. In addition to a demonstration featuring the company’s most recent Mobion-powered external power pack chargers, a new embedded fuel cell concept model was also on display that demonstrates the way in which MTI Micro’s technology can be potentially integrated into future portable electronic devices. MTI Micro, a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Inc, says that its strategy is to enter the market in 2009 with Mobion products designed for use in the consumer electronics industry for applications such as cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs, MP3 players and other handheld electronic devices. Contact: MTI Micro Fuel Cells Inc, Albany, New York, USA. Tel: +1 518 533 2222, www.mtimicrofuelcells.com
CMR demos systems for portable devices
U
K-based CMR Fuel Cells unveiled two new application-specific demonstration systems at the recent Fuel Cell Expo in Tokyo. These systems are based on the company’s high power density direct methanol stacks, which are tailored for use in PDAs and media players that require 3 W of electrical power, and for laptop computers which need 25 W.
April 2008