Fuel cell breakthrough claimed
Fuel cell membrane developer PolyFuel has created a fuel cell stack with an energy density of 500W/litre of stack volume, a move which it says ‘significantly advances’ the state of the art for direct methanol fuel cells. The stack delivers a peak power of 56W – more than twice that needed to power a typical laptop computer.
“PolyFuel’s breakthrough is important for portable electronics – particularly laptop computers,” said Henry Voss, vice president of engineering for PolyFuel. “It is the first time, to my knowledge, that anyone has demonstrated a direct methanol fuel cell stack with this high a power density.”
According to PolyFuel, the development means fuel cells of a size and weight attractive to consumers, and that integrate physically with a laptop are technically within reach.
