Fuel Cells that You can Carry on a Plane to Charge Phones, iPods, or Game Players
Disclosure: I have been following the development of this device for several years and own Medis stock.
As a long time business traveler who likes to listen to music and podcasts and who occasionally needs to participate in lengthy phone calls, I have often gathered with others around the few electric sockets available at airports to grab a bit of juice for my portable devices. Some airports have finally started making more outlets available - perhaps they recognize that forcing some of their best customers to sit on the floor next to the columns where their cleaning crews plug in vacuum cleaners was not a good form of customer service.
However, there are still plenty of times when there is no source of ready power and I have a battery operated device that needs to be charged.
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There are a couple of available solutions, but most of them depend on using chemical batteries to provide a few emergency charges. Once those charges have been completed, the batteries become a disposal challenge because it is not always easy to find a recycling path that will take proper care.
Since I have been dealing with this growing challenge for a couple of decades now, I have been very interested in a fuel cell product being developed by Medis Technologies that makes some very positive strides in solving the problem without causing new issues. Instead of typical chemical batteries, it uses a material with a paste like consistency that produces electricity by reacting with oxygen in the atmosphere.
Because a large portion of the chemical reactant is not stored inside the cell - the oxygen - the cells can be packed with a much higher quantity of energy than any battery where all of the chemicals that react to produce electron flow are sealed up as part of the battery. Medis has been working on their technology for at least five years and has made a lot of advances in terms of producing a charger that can provide a useful service.
They have gone through and extensive regulatory process to get the device approved for carrying on board airplanes, they have built and qualified a production facility that can produce large quantities of fuel cells and they have packaged the devices with a cord that accepts a number of different tips that allow it to be compatible with the multitude of different types of battery charging connections. The photo accompanying this post is one of the early models that I purchased about 9 months ago from MyTreo.com. I tried to keep track of its use - I managed to charge my iPod Nano about 30 times before it ran out of juice.
The charger is obviously one that was designed by a company where engineers have more influence than industrial designers - it looks a lot like a typical brick from a charging cord without the portion of the cord that plugs into the wall. Apparently, the company is developing some new relationships with people that know a bit more about pleasing the eye; the new models will not be in a black, boxy case. They have also announced that they are working on a product that combines their fuel cell with LED lights that will be useful for campers, travelers, storm victims and people who live in places where there is no reliable electricity. (If you want to learn more about how to purchase fuel cells or about the company’s future plans for new products using the same basic technology, you can read the transcript of their most recent investor conference call.)
Medis fuel cells are not rechargeable and they do - eventually - run out of chemical reactant and stop working. They provide about 5-20 times as much energy as a comparably sized battery, however, and the company will take them back for recycling. It is not a perfect solution, but certainly it is something to consider the next time that you wonder how you are going to keep your cell phone working through a long conference call.
Update: (Posted May 24, 2008) Medis 24 x 7 Power Packs are now available for purchase at Savenna.com. Medis also stated during their recent investor conference call that the Power Packs will soon be available for purchase at selected Best Buy stores. In the works are versions of the system that will be refillable and other versions designed to provide laptop quantity power. You can learn more about the technology at Medis Technologies.
Photo credit - Rod Adams under Creative Commons (taken May 20, 2008)
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