Fuel Cell Tech for Powerbooks

[Stridder44]

From Macrumors.com:

"MacEddition an interesting update... reporting that Apple is actively pursuing Fuel Cell technology to power future PowerBooks:

They report that Apple has been feverishly seeking out fuel-cell companies that might accept their investment dollars – and afford it a competitive advantage in this up-and-coming market.

MacEdition, however, also reports that Intel is seeking out the same companies -- and trying to lock Apple out with attempts to gain exclusive agreements. Apple appears to be so interested, that the report indicates they are willing to build future PowerBooks around Fuel Cell designs rather.

Other sources:

What is fuel cell?
Space Age Computing Power"

 

[uoba]

So, what... I'm gonna have to queue up at the gas station to recharge the powerbook!

 

[Captain Code]

Sounds cool. There're fuel cell powered cell phones coming out in Japan within a year.

Instead of carrying around a charger in your laptop bag, you can carry a small cylinder of methanol

 

[uoba]

Tasty!

 

[mr. k]

And go to the local hydrogen station to charge up :^) That's really tight!

 

[Zammy-Sam]

Originally posted by uoba
Tasty!

I wouldn't drink methanol, if I was you. Eventhough it sounds very similar to ethanol, it has a much harder effect on your nerv-cells.
Guess it would be your last drink after that one!

 

[Captain Code]

Oh yeah. You'll be lucky if you only go blind.

 

[mr. k]

Isn't methanol wood alchohol? And isn't it one of the main ingredients in Rubbing Alchohol? Because I though rubbing alchohol would get you drunk if the people who made and sold it didn't spike it with some nice poison so people wouldn't drink it...

 

[mightyjlr]

hehe Everclear anyone?

 

[Captain Code]

Won't be too long now hopefully. NEC, a Japanese company unveiled a prototype laptop that runs for up to 5 hours on a canister of methanol.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=&e=8&u=/ap/20030630/ap_on_hi_te/fuel_cell_laptop

They say they will have one that runs for 40 hours in 2 years.

 

[Zammy-Sam]

As far as I know, it is forbidden to take methanol into the plane, right? Since it's very easily flammable.
If so, it wouldn't be that practical...

 

[chemistry_geek]

Ingesting methanol will lead to permanent blindness, among other things. There is no treatment for restoring your eyesight when it is lost due to poisonous substances. The light receptors in the eye are destroyed.

If you mistakenly ingest methanol, a hospital may be able to decrease the extent of blindness if you get there in time to start pumping your body full of ethanol. The idea behind pumping your body full of ethanol has to do with enzyme kinetics and substrate specificity. Alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver prefers ethanol, but will metabolize methanol to formaldehyde (gives you the hangover headache) then goes one step further to convert formaldehyde to formic acid (VERY BAD). Pumping the body full of ethanol is an attempt to metabolize ethanol instead of methanol, thereby forcing methanol to be excreeting from the body in urine or through the lungs. Methanol itself is not poisonous in large amounts, but the metabolzed products from it, formaldehyde and formic acid, are problematic.

Read this for detailed information:
http://www.embbs.com/cr/alc/alc6.html

 

[Randman]

Alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver prefers ethanol, but will metabolize methanol to formaldehyde (gives you the hangover headache) then goes one step further to convert formaldehyde to formic acid (VERY BAD). Pumping the body full of ethanol is an attempt to metabolize ethanol instead of methanol, thereby forcing methanol to be excreeting from the body in urine or through the lungs. Methanol itself is not poisonous in large amounts, but the metabolzed products from it, formaldehyde and formic acid, are problematic.

You know, I think the same thing happened to me recently after a bout of too many Vodka/Red Bulls.
I thought one of the byproducts of a fuel cell was that the depleted hydrogen was converted into ordinary H2O, which would be a pain if you had to drain your PowerBook once in a while.
Also, wouldn't they have to figure out a way to get longer times than a normal battery without being too bulky and/or needed several batteries. And would it also be able to run on electricity, or would it be solely fuel-cell run.
I didn't know there were mobile phone prototypes to hit the streets, but it'll be interesting to see if anything comes of this in the next 5 years.
Maybe the water that comes from the fuel cell "tail pipe" can be used to have a water-cooled PowerBook. ::alien::

 

[Captain Code]

The fuel cell uses the methanol to get hydrogen, which it combines with oxygen to produce water. Because they are using methanol, there is other byproducts like C02 I think, but it's not a lot. The water is in the form of vapour, so as long as it doesn't condense, there shouldn't be a problem of getting water in your powerbook.

 

[pyroboy]

Fuel cells are not just limited to methanol. It is just one of the substances you can work with. You could also use LP Gas, aka propane. I know, it doesn't exactly sound safer, but in many ways it is safer than methanol.

Right now Coleman has a hydrogen powered fuel cell that might be a bit too big for most Powerbooks, but it is exciting to see how this technology is developing and has commercial real world uses today.

http://www.airgen.com/