Charlie Wicks wrote:
> Hi TACos,
>
> A friend of mine is working for a bay area company that designs and
> manufactures small portable fuel cells that run on mixture of methanol
> and water. These fuel cell systems will put out 20 watts (25w peak) of
> power for 10 hours at a pop on a 250 mL can of fuel. They are about
> the size and weight of a fat hardcover book. The output voltage can be
> factory set at anywhere from about 6 to 30 volts.
oh I think I remember something else about these new mini methanol fuel
cells... once you turn them on, they burn their fuel whether you use the
power or not. the fuel has to be supplied in special cartridges, its
not just a liquid fuel tank you can refill from bulk methanol.
they are expensive because they use a bunch of exotic metals like
platinum as the catalysts. they also have very high internal temperatures
there's a whole other class of propane powered fuel cells in the labs,
probably a few years away yet from production. these should be
switchable on/off
TAC's Golden State Star Party at Mount Lassen
July 11 - 14, 2007 http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org
Received on Tue Apr 24 00:10:07 2007