Japanese Start-up Plans Hydrogen Fuel Cell For 2014 55
angry tapir writes "A Japanese start-up says it has finessed a technology that could finally make consumer-grade fuel cells a reality. If successful, the company, Aquafairy, would create a business where many much larger companies have failed. Prototypes of the company's hydrogen fuel cell technology are on show this week at the Ceatec exhibition in Japan where the company's president, Mike Aizawa, said he hopes the first products will be on sale next year."
...Aisle 7, right next to the plutonium. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Doomed to failure (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Doomed to failure (Score:2, Interesting)
Their specs indicate lower specific energy than lithium ion batteries, combined with a huge base unit. The end result is that you're going to end up with something that is heavier and bulkier than existing USB lithium ion batteries, making it just another gimmick.
I could see them having some success in much larger scale applications, though (like three orders of magnitude).
I agree with that.
It seems odd that they would want to expend more energy to convert to a different energy base.
I have been working on this for decades and have finally developed a system that deals with the problem. I recently put up a web site that is intended to have all the specifications of the system, how to fabricate, as well as the experimental results that can be independently verified like real science. I am working with a local university as well as a respected expert in nuclear energy power generation.
A recent change in design will allow the direct conversion of natural gas, or basically any type of fuel directly to electrical energy in real time with very high efficiency. It would also work for solar or geothermal, but solar it is not -really- portable, so any normal application must depend on chemical energy.
The site. [moteyways.com]
Our technology is not going to be patented or restricted in any way. The site is being continually updated as I generate the documentation and so it is a WIP. It is cheap to implement and we hope to deliver test units soon. Of course nothing is certain until it is pudding and can be tasted and that is what we are doing with the university. We will have published papers with all the documentation from university lab experiments available soon. This will also allow interested people to visit and see the technology first hand.