Imagine filling up your laptop with methanol so it can run all day. That’s only a few years away because micro fuel cells are set to become power sources for laptops. But they won’t come cheap.

Laptop users who are stymied by their batteries’ rapidly flagging energy can now look forward to a long-lasting alternative—micro fuel cells. Set to debut on the market in two to four years, a micro fuel cell can power your unplugged laptop all day long. In addition, some of these new cells will function as direct plug-in replacements for current laptop batteries.

Unlike fuel cells for cars, which need hydrogen and high temperatures, fuel cells for electronic devices utilize methanol and oxygen as fuel and run at room temperature. In addition, these micro cells are much smaller than their car counterparts and might be manufactured to conform to the size and shape of conventional laptop batteries so users can easily switch from one type of power source to the other.

One trait that these small cells do share with their larger brethren is environmental appeal. When producing electricity, they discharge only water and carbon dioxide, which can both be evaporated or exhausted. Some micro fuel cell designs even include a waste bladder that can temporarily hold these byproducts.

Several companies are now fine-tuning the technology, which not only outlasts batteries but also offers instant recharging. While batteries take time to re-energize with electric power, fuel cells will be immediately revived once you replenish their fuel. Most micro fuel cells are currently being designed to draw oxygen from the air so that the only fuel that has to be bottled up is methanol, a flammable but non-explosive liquid.

Neah Power is developing a second micro fuel-cell design that utilizes a different catalyst (the solid material at the cell’s center that causes the fuels to react and generate electricity). CEO David Dorheim says that this alternative design is significantly more efficient but needs a second stored fuel—liquid hydrogen peroxide.

Both methanol and hydrogen peroxide are inexpensive, not particularly dangerous and easy to store. While these two liquids can be loosely bottled, both Dorheim of Neah Power and Bill Acker, CEO of MTI Micro Fuel Cells, expect fuel-cell manufacturers, equipment vendors and users to push for sealed fuel cartridges. And this is where the tricky part of the fuel-cell business begins.

In the same manner that a hydrogen infrastructure is still lacking for fuel-cell cars, a distribution system for fuel-cell cartridges has yet to be established. Keep in mind that, unlike electric power, methanol is not readily available to most people. Also, competing fuel-cell companies still have to set a standard for the cartridges’ size, shape and nozzle specifications. While fuel-cell vendors will likely come up with a few standard specs shortly, the technology will need time to take hold. This is one reason why fuel cells are expected to become optional, not standard, for laptops.

Fuel-cell cartridges will not come cheap for users, either. The methanol and in some cases, hydrogen peroxide, in micro fuel cells may only cost pennies, but the cartridges containing them will most likely be sold at a huge markup, just like batteries are. This presents a huge opportunity for fuel-cell manufacturers and fuel distributors because they can enjoy healthy margins. Laptop users will likely pay for the convenience of cartridges, and such containers can even sit unused for years, longer than batteries.

Indeed, raw material costs for fuel-cell cartridges will be minimal, but you can expect markups as the product moves along the supply chain, from manufacturing, packaging, shipping to marketing. Also, because a methanol cartridge can pack so much energy and appeals to a relatively affluent market, it will not be as affordable as its raw material costs suggest.

However, for the users who will benefit substantially from the micro fuel cell’s unrivaled power—field personnel, mobile workers and military and industrial employees—the advantages will certainly trump the costs.

Sources: Fuel Cells’ Cheap Power Will Cost You
Rafe Needleman
Business 2.0, Feb. 18, 2003
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/print/0,1650,47190,FF.html