Toshiba’s DMFC strategy emerges

chris

Direct Methanol Fuel Cells have long promised great advantages for devices like mobile phones, computers, cameras and other small hand-held devices. Toshiba is to start mass production.

Tosh’s first DMFC devices are likely to appear around March 2009. Toshiba says it will invest more than $3bn on additional R&D over the next few years in an attempt to build double-digit sales in the units.

Samsung has already shown off a prototype DMFC-based laptop, while Sony has similar experimental devices in its workshops.

DMFC experiments, at least to date, have concentrated on reducing the amount of leaking methanol (called methanol crossover) out of the membrane container. Despite these challenges it is widely claimed that DMFC units can produce small amounts of power over a long period of time.

The bottom line for consumers is that the “battery” units are clean, produce no harmful vapours and are claimed to generate up to 10 times the power over standard Lithium-Ion devices.

Despite Methanol being toxic and flammable, the International Covil Aviation Organisation has approved their use in micro devices and to be carried without problem onto aircraft, along with spare cartridges. On April 30 2008 the US Dept of Transportation issued its final ruling on DMFCs, saying that airline passengers and crew could carry an approved fuel cell on board an aircraft, and up to two replacement cartridges.



Source: Rapid TV News

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