Bradley zapped a TwitPic today of a fuel cell-powered cell phone charger and my interest was peaked.
M2O is big on green solutions to problems in our world. Beyond our need for fuel to run vehicles, we need power to run our myriad devices (like my laptop, Blackberry, iPod…). Sure a lot of these devices run on batteries, so that’s not too bad, right?
Well, sorta, because the electricity still has to be generated somehow. Here in BC we’re pretty lucky that a lot of our power is generated by hydroelectric dams, which is pretty green (there is some debate about it), but elsewhere coal, oil, gas, and nuclear power (another tech that is debated as green) is used to generate power.
Fine, so, we know to unplug things, to recycle things, but how can we recharge our devices without the grid? We can’t really help how our power is generated, can we?
Personally I have a Solio recharger, which is essentially a giant battery. I can recharge it via the power outlet or the Sun. What about something else?
Fuel cells.
Hydrogen fuel cells generate power using reactions between good old H2 and other materials. Typically research on fuel cells has been for cars, buses, and other large fossil fuel consuming machines, but since fuel cells can be very safe and old give off water and heat (that’s because hydrogen releases energy then combines with oxygen to go back to water) making small fuel cells for consumer electronics seems like a great idea. Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies makes the above device. Not much on their site about it, but the science is good. Imagine taking tap water and charging your devices?
Could really free laptops from needing outlets to power up as much.
Yes, I know hydrogen has this nasty tendency to blow up, but these fuel cells are very safe.
I think more exciting than this device is their fuel cell powered bike. No, not because you can cruise at a spiffy 25 KMH, but because the engine can also be deployed to power other things like computers and lights. The surplus heat can be used as, well, heat.
Loving this stuff. I think I’m going to hit up Bradley to get one of the H2 racer sets for the office.