JUL 15

MTI Micro’s Mobion fuel cells have broken a new record – the power pack has hit over 2,700 hours of continuous use on a cell phone. They’ve been testing out the fuel cells with intent to demonstrate just how much energy their battery can get over Li-Ion power packs. And they can check that off their to-do list. A lab test version lasted 2,700 hours of continuous use with a power degradation of less than 15%. The low power degradation rate is in and of itself a breakthrough in the micro fuel cell industry. But that isn’t the exciting part.

Li-Ion batteries can lose up to 50% of their capacity after about 1,200 hours of use, which is the average amount of time talked over an average 2-year contract. So essentially, the Mobion fuel cell battery can last twice the amount of talk time used over the course of 2 years without nearly the amount of degradation. That’s some serious talk time. I’m getting flashes of that phone commercial with the bubbly teen girl chatting non-stop.

The fuel cell uses liquid methanol cartridges – liquid methanol being energy dense, easy to store, and safer than hydrogen, with the byproducts being water and CO2 released in small amounts.

MTI Micro has partnered with NeoSolar (WiBrain) to build prototypes for the consumer market, looking to make the Mobion available for all sorts of NeoSolar's handheld gadgets. They already have prototype digital camera and MP3 player batteries, and are working on a GPS unit. And the companies are working together to build a prototype of an ultra-mobile PC powered by fuel cells.

Just imagine never needing to recharge your gadget with a charger cord. Niiiiiiice. Now that is something I’m really looking forward to.

Via ecofriend, slashgear, cnet, PR-Inside

Comments (16)

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Awesome!
written by Jinks, July 15, 2008

I'm really liking this news, and its making me more and more optimistic. With Honda releasing their PEM cell SUV and now these methanol FC's commercialized, I'm thinking that we're seeing the beginning of an amazing new trend as Fuel Cells take off!
Awesome.

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Amazing, but will need more info before
written by Clinch, July 15, 2008

They haven't just broken the record, they've shattered it (and put it in the recycle bin).

Although, that being said, I'd need to know more info on this breakthrough before I start planning to get rid of all my old batteries.
While the enhanced lifetime is amazing, there comes a point where it's no longer a key factor, efficiency is. All I need from my batteries, is for them to stay charged until I am easily able to recharge them again, and very rarely am I away from a charger for 2 years.
And as I was saying about efficiency, if this new super-battery is less than 1/10th as efficient as converting mains-electricity as a battery that only last 2 weeks, then I'd rather have the latter (and there's the whole issue of how green its manufacture is compaired to current batteries)

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Needs more information
written by EV, July 15, 2008

The main piece of information I would like is how many watt-hours the battery can provide.

Claiming X hours is nice and all, but there are too many ways to fudge the numbers to increase the time. For instance, a blackberry and a bottom of the line phone do not use the same amount of power. How far the phone is from the transmitter is another, as the farther away the phone is, the more power it needs to transmit the signal. Then there is the power the phone uses while not in use. An iPhone is pretty much 'always on' checking your email, for instance. So, as I said, give me watt-hours, not talk time.

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Paper or Plastic.
written by Souptik Gupta, July 15, 2008

Would you rather have a root canal without Novocain or fall down a flight of stairs? Would you rather breathe second hand smoke or get an X-ray without the lead protective vest? Would you like paper or plastic? Please visit http://www.simplewaystohelp.com for all your queries.

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Just for phones?
written by The Food Monster, July 16, 2008

http://thefoodmonsterblog.blogspot.com
It would be great if these could be built in a larger form, for say an automobile. How efficient for it's size are they?

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So want that in a new iPhone3G
written by Anthony, July 16, 2008

Not having to worry about charging the phone would be great.

The only thing I worry about is volatility. If I can travel with it on an airplane, that'd be great.

Finally, I guess if I had to guess the Wh capability, I'd say that it was around 1,000 Wh. If a 3.5Wh battery can get 8-10hrs talk time (at least on EDGE/GPRS), 2700 hrs is roughly 1,000Wh.

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Um, I think you misunderstood the announ
written by kenz, July 16, 2008

Unless the methanol pack is as large as your backpack, I can pretty much assure you it didn't run this long on ONE cartridge. What they're referring to is how long the fuel cell ITSELF can run using many cartridges. Fuel cells don't last forever, so they're testing how long their membrane lasts. Thus, you'll still be swapping out methanol cartridges to keep you phone running, and last I checked, it's easier to find an outlet on a business trip than a methanol cartridge.

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Again
written by Doug, July 16, 2008

People, remember this is not one single charge lasting 2 years; it's just the fuel cell device itself, with a large amount of methanol being pumped into it -- equivalent to many cartridge changes.

There may be some merit in terms of how long the fuel cell degrades vs. li-ion batteries, but methanol is still pretty much a fossil fuel (at least in terms of how it's generally produced today), so this is not applicable to cars.

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...
written by IamIan, July 16, 2008

agree with Doug... the article is misleading... the 2,700 hours is how long before the fuel cell itself breaks down by that amount... no talk about how many methanol fuel cartridges it will burn through in that period of time... one per hour would mean 2,700 cartridges... one every minute would be 162,000 cartridges ... so that is a very important piece that should have been included in the article.

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...
written by NS, July 16, 2008

Obviously this is different from ZAP's recharge it all that gives you the option of recharging your gadgets from their i ZAP and other recharges that store enough power to recharge your phone or i pod 3 to 4 times, which i really like.

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...
written by Czar, July 16, 2008

2,700 hours?? Cool! Well, that's quite a very long power duration for just a small cellphone battery.

BTW, is this rechargeable? If it is, how many hours will I wait to make it fully charged?

Is this already out in the market? How much?

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let's be real
written by W, July 16, 2008

Kenz is right. This did not run on one charge. It would have to be refueled using a methanol tanks, similar to the small butane tanks that you use to refuel your lighters. Granted, fuel cells will still run longer than current battery technology, but this is not a 2700 hour phone battery charge but a 2700 hour lifetime.
Just think about the conveninence of a fuel cell device when your phone dies at 11pm on a Sunday night, you're methanol tank is empty, and you're speeding around town trying to find a cigar store open to refuel your phone. I'd personally rather just plug it in, but that's me.

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How will it be solved practically?
written by No I will not give you my bloody name, why would I do that?, July 18, 2008

How will we recharge these? Will we fill metanol into our cell phones, or will we have a buy-and-dispose battery? In the last scenario I wouldn't like it, all these waste batteries (well, fuel cells), and waste wrapping. You know how crazy they can go with huge wrappings and small products.

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...
written by quest1, July 21, 2008

In the US, its allowed now on a voluntary basis and full compliance by October 1,2008. Energy density is
50 mW/cm2,1.4whr per cc of fuel.So, a small Methanol Cartridge of 10 cc's would run an I-phone for quite awhile. These MFC's could be in a hybrid configuration with a battery to provide some talk time with wall charge, or infinite time with Methanol Cartridges. Methanol goes for about $1.50 USD a gallon, so Methanol refills shouldn't cost to much. Soon you should be able to buy them at severe discounts over the net, like anything else.
I would love one of these for my HD Camcorder for when I go on vacation!

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...
written by sid, July 21, 2008

That $1.50 per gallon is about 1/4 the actual cost.

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written by Easy to Use Cellphones, July 22, 2009

Seems like a pipe dream to me. Cellphones have a battery life of like 5 hours when used continuously, where is this sudden explosion of battery life coming from?

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