Posted by: PowerPage Contributor
Date: Tuesday, August 12th, 2003, 23:10
Category: Archive

An interesting article on ARS Technica by Fred “zAmboni” Locklear dicusses the NEC laptop fuel cell.

Even though NEC was not able to beat Toshiba in developing a laptop fuel cell prototype, they still have big plans for their technology. NEC unveiled their version of a laptop fuel cell today, and on the surface, their version doesn’t seem too special compared to Toshiba’s prototype. Initial prototypes from both appear to sport the same fuel cartridge lifetime (~5 hours) and the both have cells that weigh 900g…but that swells to 2kg for NEC if the fuel cell is integrated into the laptop. Also…contrary to many stories I have seen on the announcement, the original test laptops (to be available in 2004) will not have a lifetime of 40 hours, it’ll be 2006 and further refinements until we see lifetimes that long.

Read more at ARS Technica.
Toshiba’s version of the laptop fuel cell runs on alcohol: “The fuel cell breaks down methanol to generate power… the alcohol fuel is provided in small 50cc cartridges.”

An interesting article on ARS Technica by Fred “zAmboni” Locklear dicusses the NEC laptop fuel cell.

Even though NEC was not able to beat Toshiba in developing a laptop fuel cell prototype, they still have big plans for their technology. NEC unveiled their version of a laptop fuel cell today, and on the surface, their version doesn’t seem too special compared to Toshiba’s prototype. Initial prototypes from both appear to sport the same fuel cartridge lifetime (~5 hours) and the both have cells that weigh 900g…but that swells to 2kg for NEC if the fuel cell is integrated into the laptop. Also…contrary to many stories I have seen on the announcement, the original test laptops (to be available in 2004) will not have a lifetime of 40 hours, it’ll be 2006 and further refinements until we see lifetimes that long.

Read more at ARS Technica.
Toshiba’s version of the laptop fuel cell runs on alcohol: “The fuel cell breaks down methanol to generate power… the alcohol fuel is provided in small 50cc cartridges.”