Originally published March 23 2005
Millennium Cell displays fuel cell for notebook use at Intel Developer Forum
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Millennium Cell is displaying a fuel cell that it aims to market to notebook manufacturers. The fuel cell, expected to be ready for production by 2007, is made of a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen (instead of methanol). The hydrogen is extracted from a metal-hydrogen compound that is converted from a small plastic unit that is placed alongside the notebook. This unit will lately be integrated into notebooks.
Though a number of companies have shown off fuel cells for cell phones and MP3 players, a company out of New Jersey says it has come up with one that can power a notebook.
Millennium Cell is showing off a fuel cell at the Intel Developer Forum that it says can run a notebook for eight hours.
The company's goal is to produce fuel cells for notebook manufacturers by 2007.
Fuel cells are tiny power packs that generate electricity through a chemical reaction between oxygen and a fuel such as methanol.
Unlike most other fuel cells, this one doesn't rely on methanol.
Instead, it extracts hydrogen from a metal-hydrogen compound (in the prototype, it's sodium hydride).
Methanol provides less energy than hydrogen--which is why most developers are aiming fuel cells at low-energy devices like MP3 players--but it is easier to store.
Millennium Cell gets around the hydrogen production and storage problem with a plastic box, measuring 3 inches by 5 inches by 1 inch, that sits alongside the notebook.
In the market, consumers would buy replacement cartridges carrying the metallic hydride.
With Wireless USB, consumers can forgo cables to connect cameras and other devices to PCs.
The protocol will be carried on top of ultrawideband wireless technology.
Samples of chips will likely come out in about six months with products going to device manufacturers in about 18 months.
Technology for energy-efficient, bright notebook screens from Toshiba and start-up Clairvoyante.
Technically, Clairvoyante doesn't make screens but licenses the technology to screen makers.
In one of the more unusual demonstrations, a start-up called Piconetics showed off a technology it says will harvest electricity that gets pumped into computers but is not used, thereby reducing power consumption through better conservation.
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