Fuel Cells – Are they safe

I have been watching fuel cells quite a bit anticipating when they will be ready for laptops in an acceptable form factor. The idea of having power that would last a good number of hours and then the ability to recharge by just putting fuel in to it is quite cool and very handy. Unfortunately some people are getting nervous due to laptop batteries setting a few fires going over the last year and this has delayed the fuel cell technology.

For a quick description of how a fuel cell works read below…

Fuel cells work by combining chemicals (like hydrogen and oxygen) to produce electricity, with the only byproduct being water and heat, making them incredibly energy efficient. In fact, compared to traditional batteries, fuel cells like those being developed by Jadoo Power and others, are smaller, have a consistent run time over life, can be hot swapped without losing power to the device, have no memory buildup, and you can recharge four fuel cells in less time than it takes to recharge a single traditional battery.

Hopefully we can see fuel cells with us soon. Right now they are available for certain groups like the Army who can test them, but they are not affordable at the moment for most people and are not compact enough. In the next few years we should expect to see fuel cells power a laptop for 10+ hours on a single refill. This would be excellent if this happened.

Via: Sci-Fi