UltraCell25: First-Ever Fuel Cell Laptop Battery

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Fuel cells are hot. We wrote about the Hydrogen-powered fuel cell motorcycle, and it caused a fury of interest. But everyone knows that the THE holy grail of fuel cells (next to cars perhaps) is the battery problem most laptop and cell phone owners face. We can’t take the charging and re-charging.

Today, there’s word of a laptop fuel cell battery from UltraCell that offers twice the density of lithium ion and available in 2006. Only catch: it looks like one of those heavy Sears car batteries. With a name like UltrCell25, my guess is what, 25 pounds!

“UltraCell’s reformed methanol fuel cell, or RMFC, technology uses a micro reformer to generate fuel-cell-ready hydrogen from a highly concentrated methanol solution. The new portable power system has the density of a hydrogen fuel cell but uses readily available, low-cost methanol fuel in a compact package.” Source: Gizmodo quoting News.com