Originally published February 6 2006
Battery technologies are becoming more high-powered
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
ARNnet.com takes a look at innovation in fuel cell and lithium ion batteries, two technologies that manufacturers are devoting their research to improve.
No matter how portable gadgets become there's a time when they all must come back to earth: recharging time.
Whether they are screens, processors, storage or other components, they usually share the advantage of lower power consumption.
Much of the development work is focused on making batteries based on current technologies, such as lithium ion, last longer, and an increasing amount of time is being spent looking into new technologies such as fuel cells.
"Lithium ion has been improving at a rate of about 9 per cent per year since a decade ago when Sony introduced the first" battery based on this technology, co-founder of A123 Systems, a start-up that's developed a high-power battery, Ric Fulop, said.
Japan's Matsushita Battery Industrial said earlier this year that it's working with Intel on a lithium ion battery that will have a capacity of 2.9Ah.
Scheduled to be available in April, it should keep a laptop running for about eight hours.
A prototype unveiled by Toshiba at this year's Cebit show in Germany could power a small laptop for 10 hours before it required a recharge in the form of a squirt of methanol, similar to the way a cigarette lighter is refueled.
Lenovo Group and Sanyo Electric also are working on a DMFC -based prototype, but plan to combine the fuel cell with a conventional lithium ion battery.
Such a hybrid power source offers the best initial solution for DMFCs until technology improves, Sanyo said.
Commercialisation for military or industrial use would come before consumer use, with the military leading the pack, Bradford said.
Start-up Medis Technologies said it has a fuel cell that doesn't face the same regulatory or standardization problems.
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