Toshiba has produced a prototype of a compact, direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The company believes that this opens the way to the use of DMFC as an alternative power source to recharge batteries for personal devices.

Toshiba has produced a prototype of a compact, direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The company believes that this opens the way to the use of DMFC as an alternative power source to recharge batteries for personal devices.

Toshiba minimised the size of auxiliary parts, such as the fuel tank, liquid/air transmission pumps, interfaces, electric circuits and DC-DC converters. The methanol fuel is also stored at a high concentration, allowing the fuel cartridge to be reduced to a volume of only 25cc.

Normally methanol for use in a fuel cell is most efficient when mixed with water in a 3-6% concentration. This would require a fuel tank that is much too large for use with portable equipment. Toshiba overcame this by developing a system that allows a higher concentration of methanol to be diluted by the water produced as a by-product of the power generation process itself, allowing the fuel to be stored at a much higher concentration. The company says that the resulting fuel tank is less than a tenth the size of that required for storing the same volume of diluted methanol.

Toshiba's 100x60x30mm (140cc) DMFC is small enough to fit in a carry-on bag or even in a jeans pocket. The fuel source realises an average output of 1W/hour for some 20 hours of total operation on a single 25cc cartridge of high concentration methanol. Total weight is130grams including the 30gram 30x60x20mm cartridge.

Toshiba expects to commercialise the DMFC for both portable PCs and handheld products by 2005.

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Thanks to the great diversity of the semiconductor industry, we are always chasing new markets and developing a range of exciting technologies.

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