One Methanol Battery Equals One Full Month of Cell Phone Power

With solar and wind technology right on the horizon, engineers are scrambling to find a battery that can hold the immense power generated by these sources that our current grid simply can’t process. This is leading to extraordinary advances in battery technology all across the board. For instance, the commercialization of small fuel cell chargers could potentially put these bad boys in stores as early as next year. One of the companies hoping to make that happen is MTI Micro. Their Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC) made its debut at the Fuel Cell Expo in Japan earlier this year.

The fuel cell prototypes, based on several years of development work include a sleek model fitted to the back of a Samsung BlackJack smart phone, and one that could fit easily to a single lens camera.

DMFCs produce electricity from a reaction between methanol, water and air. The only by-products of the reaction are a small amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide. Even though carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it is produced in such small quantities that the fuel cells are typically seen as a much greener form of energy than traditional batteries. Another bonus – no more waiting for charges – you can replace them with a new one in seconds. That puts you completely off grid!

There are however drawbacks to the system. For one, it generates a fair amount of heat. While the device has a cooling system built in, whether users want a warm cell phone close to their skin remains to be seen. The device is still only a proof of concept, and work remains to be done on it, so a cooler running DMFC could be possible by the time it's really made commercially available.

A prototype of a methanol battery charger was also demonstrated. With a USB power socket on its side, it can charge most portable electronic devices and even run some of them. Each refill cartridge for the charger has enough methanol to recharge a cell phone about eight to 10 times, said Lim. A road warrior should be able to survive away from a wall jack for a month with that much power, and then get another month by inserting a new methanol cartridge.