PolyFuel designs superior fuel cell membranes for electronics, autos

• PolyFuel and its competitors may be working out the kinks of building a better membrane, but fuel cells still have several hurdles to overcome before they become mainstream.
• According to Balcom, today's hydrogen fuel cells for cars are not able to sustain the 1,000 hours of life that government regulators would like to see.
• Balcom says that the current materials used to make hydrogen fuel cells run as much as $300 per square meter, about 10 times the cost that would make it affordable.
• Even assuming that the first fuel cell-enabled cars are hybrids, with the ability to run on gas or some other power as well as hydrogen, consumers will demand some way of being able to routinely "fill up" their fuel cells.
• With the promise of automobiles that no longer depend on foreign gas and laptops that run three times as long without plugging in, it's no wonder electronics manufacturers, auto makers, and pioneering start-ups are scrambling to create the best fuel cell.
• Coated with a catalyst such as platinum power on carbon paper, the membrane encourages the positive protons to pass through it and react with oxygen (creating a by-product of water), while forcing the electrons to flow out of the cell where they create electrical current.
• Over the years, companies have experimented with a variety of potential fuels, but in general, the most popular developments have focused on hydrogen fuel cells for cars and methanol for "micro fuel cells", those smaller versions of the power source used to run cell phones, laptops and the like.
• "They've taken [the same] technology designed for the Gemini space program and tried to shoehorn it into auto and portable applications," says Jim Balcom, president and CEO of PolyFuel.
• Focused initially on the micro fuel cell market for electronics devices, PolyFuel made headlines recently when the company announced significant breakthroughs with its hydrogen-based auto fuel cells.