Forgot about micro fuel cells, did ‘ya? Despite many plaguing issues that have long-delayed the technology, many in the industry still believe in the promise of fuel cells. After all, nobody disputes that the market need is there. Micro fuel cells are coming along…slowly but surely.

Seemingly so long ago, fuel cells — particularly their micro versions — were riding a wave of tout as the hot “portable energy source of the future.” They were the “future power source of portable electronics.” This was circa five years ago. So what became of them? They were widely hailed as a potential solution to the “power gap” caused by increasingly power-hungry devices and traditional batteries’ failure to handle them. They “pack[ed] a lot more punch than batteries” and “yielded only water as a by-product.”

So, seriously, what happened to them?

The revolution in small power sources — in micro fuel cells — was delayed.

The fuel cell delay has truly been a global trend: numerous companies in Japan have announced commercial fuel cell products that never arrived on the market, while Germany’s Smart Fuel Cell also delayed its launch from 2006 to 2007, after originally promising a launch in 2004.

Despite this, the outlook still appears pleasant for future micro fuel cells.

Size matters in consumer electronics, and it is here, in portable consumer electronics, that miniaturized fuel cells will first be widespread. Micro fuel cells are exactly as the name suggests: fuel cells that are significantly smaller than their automotive counterparts. Simply put, they are batteries for portable electronic devices that use a refillable external fuel supply — from hydrogen to natural gas, methanol, ethanol and sodium borohydride. Micro technology, of course, is the key to achieve the miniaturization and cost reduction required in portable electronics, Fuel Cell Works said this month, and applications such as cell phones, hearing aids, laptops, chip cards and other small portable devices may be equipped with micro fuel cells in the future, thereby replacing traditional batteries.

The graphic above shows the process inside of a micro fuel cell.
(Credit: MTI Micro Fuel Cells Inc.)

Portable power is a potentially huge prize. The more power-hungry digital devices have become, the less plain-old lithium-ion batteries have been able to keep pace. Indeed, fuel cells are the leading candidate to replace them, Business 2.0 noted late in 2005. The most popular technology is called direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), which mixes methanol and oxygen.

Fuel cell makers have good reason to forge ahead, Red Herring has said. In October, Business 2.0 named micro fuel cells as one of the Seven Technologies That Change Everything, although “the transition will take time, so don’t expect to buy a fuel cell at Best Buy right away.” Research & Markets forecasts that sales of micro fuel cell will grow to $510 million by 2008 and $11 billion by 2013. Meanwhile, market research firm Clean Edge says the fuel cell market will grow from less than $1 billion today — mostly for testing and research — to $15.1 billion in 2014. (Though comparatively disproportionate in the financial-growth forecast, both Research & Markets and Clean Edge predict a massive rise; as well, the former was based on sales, the latter on testing and research, respectively.) Moreover, Frost & Sullivan expects to see 126 million units of fuel cell products on the market worldwide by 2010, with the bulk of that growth occurring in 2007 and the following year. Freedonia Group expects the market in the United States alone to grow 6.1 percent annually, reaching $10.3 billion in 2008; according to the Cleveland-based research firm, “Laptops are still a primary market for micro fuel cells.”

However, as it stands today, prototype micro fuel cells still fall short of the mark.

As they don’t produce enough energy per square inch, and despite their “micro” distinction, most fuel cells are still too large to fit into laptops, much less cell phones. Also, as Red Herring said in an excellent article late in October 2005, these micro fuel cells still require batteries to start devices and run them at peak power levels, which reduces the available space. “And most fuel cells require humidity to operate and generate heat and water as byproducts. Systems are needed to manage the excess water, to keep the cell’s internal environment humid, and to keep the heat safely under control so that the casing is cool enough to touch. Companies now have the technology to do those things, but the systems add to fuel cells’ complexity and take up space.”

In order to attract high-volume customers, fuel cells must address challenges such as standardization, energy density (fuel efficiency rates), methanol crossover, and other key challenges. Some companies claim they are coming closer to solving the industry’s major problems. Earlier this month, for example, Matsushita, a division of Panasonic, announced its development of a new fuel supply method for fuel cells powering portable devices that makes it possible to reduce the size of the fuel cell to one half of the current industry level. Matsushita’s creation of this new method means that the size of the devices can be reduced — considered a breakthrough because one of the major barriers to the development of fuel cells so far has always been the need for relatively large fuel storage containers.

For further example, Toshiba unveiled a prototype in September that integrated a gum-packet-sized, 100-milliwatt methanol-based fuel cell into a mobile audio player. Small batteries help start the MP3 player, which runs off the fuel cell once the batteries are fully charged. “The topped-up fuel cell lasts 20 hours, and users refill it by squirting methanol from a spill-proof cartridge into the MP3 player’s internal tank,” Red Herring quoted Fumio Ueno, a Toshiba technology executive, as having said.

As the publication further acknowledged:

The simple refilling method is innovative, but it also underlines another major issue in the micro fuel cell industry: a lack of standardization. Most fuel cell developers use cartridges, which users would replace to refuel the cells instantly. Brian Barnett, managing director at product development and consulting firm TIAX, says size standardizing isn’t essential — after all, different manufacturers’ lithium-ion batteries aren’t exchangeable [...] Fuels, packaging, shapes, and even the basic configuration of fuel cells are all up for grabs, and that will make commercialization more difficult.

Toshiba also plans to launch its micro fuel cells for laptops and MP3 players in 2007, once the regulations have been ironed out. However, as with any regulation, approval and timelines are uncertain.

In addition, users also will have to deal with the concept of refueling their cells, and analysts say it will have to be as easy as replacing batteries. Ease of use is necessary, as plug-in batteries already are incredibly simple: Can powering up with micro fuel cells be as simple, if not simpler? It must be if consumers are expected to choose them over traditional batteries.

Regarding not only micro fuel cells, but also their larger brethren, each of these challenges clouds predictions of when fuel cells will actually launch. As such, and despite analysts’ and research firms’ forecasts, the timeline is intangible. “These were issues five years ago, and they’re still issues today,” Dan Benjamin, a senior analyst at ABI Research, told Red Herring. “I still think it’s just a matter of time, but I think we need to stop guessing on the timeline and wait until we see a shipping product.” It is not only a matter of putting final changes on a product, he added — a great deal of development still has to be done. The industry is waiting for scientific breakthroughs to make fuel cells viable, and it is difficult to predict when those will happen.

Nevertheless, progress has been made, and that is why many in the industry still think fuel cells in general will become a reality. Working groups are cropping up, and they could bring the consensus and consolidation needed to get fuel cells and cartridges into retail: “Each year you see them become more compact, and also you see more efficiency from the actual fuel — efficiency rates have been improving,” Sara Bradford, research manager of the power systems group at research firm Frost & Sullivan, said. “Those are definitely steps in the right direction. The more power the fuel cell can provide to your device, and the longer it’ll run, and the less the waste on the fuel efficiency, the better the outlook for fuel cells.”

Technical improvements have also been announced. And in the field of micro fuel cells, Smart Fuel Cell announced a new membrane last year that would use half of the platinum catalyst, significantly reducing cost, Red Herring pointed out. Also last year, Hitachi Maxell reported a new catalyst using one-third of the platinum, again reducing costs while increasing power density. Further, PolyFuel released a new version of its membrane that the company claims is “easier and cheaper to manufacture than its previous version.”

(An interesting yet still-imperfect micro-fuel-cells announcement came earlier this month, via Design News, stating that portable electronic devices powered by a hybrid fuel cell/battery, dubbed “Formira,” should begin working by 2007 in places where the electrical grid has yet to reach. Its developer, Tekion Inc., is applying the new power source to off-the-grid products such as sat phones, according to the announcement. The Formira fuel cell uses formic acid instead of the usual methane as an H2 agent chiefly because of its higher-power density.)

As Red Herring said:

Such advances suggest that fuel cells are inching closer to the marketplace. But despite all of this progress, the rampant delays have turned even some of fuel cells’ formerly faithful flock into atheists, or at least agnostics. It makes sense to explore other approaches, such as reducing energy consumption in consumer electronics, developing better power management, and continuing to develop better batteries. And when even fuel cell companies themselves point to their competitors’ delays as signs that their technology isn’t viable, placing bets on a specific date is a fool’s gamble.

It looks like mass-market micro fuel cells, instantly recharged by refueling or by replacing fuel cartridges, will simply have to wait a few years. Eventually, though, they are expected to become even smaller, even lighter and up to 10 times more powerful than existing batteries.

So don’t give up on them yet.

References

Fuel Cell Phones
by Steven Ashley
Scientific American, July 2001

Micro (MEMS-based) Fuel Cells
The Franuhofer Institute (via Fuel Cell Works), Jan. 14, 2006

Seven Technologies That Change Everything
by Om Malik
Business 2.0 (via CNN/MONEY), Oct. 1, 2005

Fuel Cell Follies
Red Herring, Oct. 31, 2005 (print)

Matsushita Battery Develops New Micro Fuel Cell Technology For Portable Electronics Devices
Panasonic press release/announcment, Jan. 4, 2006

Panasonic Digs In for Recyclable Energy
Gizmodo, Jan. 11, 2006

Making Connections
by Paul Sharke
Design News, Jan. 9, 2006