May 23, 2005

AND GEORGE SOROS WITH ALL THOSE OIL FUTURES... (via Michael Herdegen):

UK firm claims breakthrough in fuel cell technology (Stuart Penson, May 19, 2005, Reuters)

A small British technology company on Thursday claimed to be on the verge of unlocking the vast potential of fuel cells as a commercially viable source of green energy.

Cambridge-based CMR Fuel Cells said it had made a breakthrough with a new design of fuel cell which is a tenth of the size of existing models and small enough to replace conventional batteries in laptop computers.

"We firmly believe CMR technology is the equivalent of the jump from transistors to integrated circuits," said John Halfpenny, the firm's chief executive. [...]

CMR said the new design would run for four times longer than conventional batteries in a laptop or other devices like power tools.

"It's also instantly rechargable," said Michael Priestnall, chief technology officer at CMR. Priestnall and chief engineer Michael Evans came up with the design while working at Cambridge-based consultancy Generics Group.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 23, 2005 8:45 AM
Comments

Can you imagine trying to bring a methanol storage container on a airplane? TSA would have a fit.

Posted by: Peter Van Wirt at May 23, 2005 9:14 AM

Improving battery technology should significantly reduce if not eliminate the use of gas/oil for items that are not required to cover large distances (i.e. lawn tools, inner city buses, short distance vehicles, etc). Whether this makes a major dent in the oil need of the US will remain to be seen.

Posted by: AWW at May 23, 2005 9:39 AM

The power still has to come from somewhere.

On the other hand, this quasi-battery function is where fuel cell research has been heading for a while and is likely to be much more productive and environmentally useful than fuel cell cars, which have a lot of practical problems to overcome.

Posted by: David Cohen at May 23, 2005 11:26 AM

I'll have to file this with the turkey guts technology. Moving right along...

Posted by: Genecis at May 23, 2005 12:15 PM

Augh! "source of green energy"! Fuel cells are not and never will be a source of energy. As Mr. Cohen points out, they are batteries. Certainly very useful and they might well provide a n economy with less ecological impact. However, I think we should use the concept of fuel cells as a litmus test – if it appears in an article then we know that the author hasn't the slightest clue about the subject.

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at May 23, 2005 4:49 PM

This makes about 5,000 breakthroughs in fuel cell technology since I first heard of them.

The only thing that is more overpromised is resurrection.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at May 24, 2005 6:44 PM

Worked once, as promised.

Posted by: oj at May 24, 2005 6:48 PM
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