Fuel cells will one day power your car, your laptop, camera and cellphone, but until the day the tech matures enough to become fully integrated, a likely stopgap will be gadget power-booster devices like this new one from Medis Technologies. It's apparently the first on the market, and it's sadly and strangely not a taste of the future.
Fuel cells carry the promise of easily rechargeable and eco-friendly power, which is why their future looks so bright. But they come in different varieties, consuming different fuels with oxygen to create that power, and that's where the new Medis device fails. It's powered by sodium borohydride (NaBH4), instead of hydrogen or methanol like competing technologies use.
You may think explosive hydrogen and flammable and toxic methanol sound risky, but check out NaBH4's safety list: It's a powerful laboratory reagent that's flammable and corrosive, will burn skin on contact, and is harmful if swallowed or absorbed through the skin. It also reacts vigorously with water.
That's actually the process the Medis fuel-cell uses: It comes with a cartridge of reagents (water and NaBH4) that you squeeze to activate--the reagents mix, and produce power (and hydrogen gas as a by-product.) It'll run for 40 hours and the charging assembly comes with a bunch of different connectors to let you juice-up USB-powered devices, cellphones, MP3 players and so on.
But the fuel cartridge isn't recyclable or refillable, so it may end up as plastic waste in a landfill, which is a decidedly non-eco-friendly quality. The company is working to establish a recycling program for spent fuel packs, but it's not in place yet.
So this appears to be a strictly single-use fuel-cell device, possibly useful for powering your gadgets if you're on a weekend camping trip in the wild or as an emergency/disaster survival pack component. It's got toxic fuel that comes in a non-refillable, non-recyclable package. And it costs around $35 for the gadget-charging version with tips (a new fuel pack without tips is $25) and around $50 for a version that comes with a flashlight.
Kudos to Medis technologies for bringing the fuel cell to the consumer, but I'm actually looking forward to tiny methanol or hydrogen fuel cells, that you'll be able to refill with a squirt from a fuel cannister--and they won't corrode my leg if the gadget leaks in my pocket.
Update: Medis has been in touch with us to describe and demystify the core technology of the fuel pack. Apparently it uses a "stabilized version" of the liquid borohydride (NaBH4) that's "non-flammable, non-toxic and non-explosive." It also doesn't react adversely with water, so should the pack become damaged it wouldn't be dangerous--a totally different situation to "pure" borohydride chemistry.
Furthermore there're instructions detailed on the pack for customers to mail the spent product to a recycling facility.
After learning that, I'm actually pretty impressed with the sounds of the cell--it'd be great if others followed in Medis' wake.
[via The New York Times]
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Recent Comments | 5 Total
February 14, 2009 at 11:35am by steve stevens
Kit, you need to get your facts straight.
Pure solid NaBH4 may be flammable. The Medis fuel is an aqueous (watery) solution and is NOT flammable. The contents of lithium batteries, on the other hand, are explosively flammable.
A tube of toothpaste or a bottle of aspirin are "toxic" if used improperly. Saying "toxic" doesn't mean anything.
Medis's fuel may be corrosive but so are the contents of alkaline batteries and many household products. The "safety list" linked to above is for pure, solid, unpackaged NaBH4. Not the Medis fuel.
What matters is the packaging. Medis would never have received UL, CE or DoT safety certifications if there was any danger at all with proper use of the product.
"The Fuel Cell Power Pack bears the UL and CE markings having been certified by the UL and CE standards’ organizations, so you can trust that the product is safe. Additionally, the Department of Transportation has issued a permit for the product, allowing for it to be carried and used in an aircraft while in flight."
http://www.medistechnologies.com/Default.aspx?SecId=55
I have used the Medis product. You could run it over with a car and it wouldn't break open. It is perfectly safe.
Hydrogen, by the way, IS flammable. Methanol, if ingested or absorbed through the skin, CAN cause blindness in the concentrations used in some other fuel cells. You will never be able to "squirt methanol from a fuel cannister".
February 27, 2009 at 1:36pm by Mark Wilson
Let me clarify. Medis Technologies (Medis) has created the world's first portable fuel cell commercially available to consumers, utilizing a proprietary Direct Liquid Fuel Cell (DLFC) technology. As such, there has been some confusion surrounding what makes our technology so effective.
The underlying chemistry found in Medis’ products is direct liquid borohydride. The Company does use a stabilized version of borohydride, however, this is not flammable. In fact, today’s products are non-flammable, not toxic and not explosive. Medis’ fuel does not react adversely with water. Water is one of the key components in the company’s “fuel paste.” When customers are finished with Medis’ products, they can mail them back to a recycling facility found on the product’s packaging.
Medis’ products – Medis 24/7 Xtreme Portable Charger Fuel Cell Power Starter Kit and Medis Fuel Cell Power Emergency Kit - represent an entirely new power generation source that provides instant energy generation, and is portable, eco-friendly and safe to use. As fuel cells are a complex technology, and as Medis’ technology is the first of its kind, we would be more than happy to get you in touch with Medis’ scientists to discuss further.
March 5, 2009 at 10:40am by Kit Eaton
@Steve. An aqueous NaBH4 paste is, of course, a much safer alternative, and I've corrected the post to represent that. Not so sure about downplaying competing tech though: Yes, hydrogen is flammable but then so is gasoline and the naptha or butane in a cigarette lighter--and there's a gargantuan body of research into both direct methanol (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/toshiba_fuel-cell.php) and hydrogen fuel cells. We'll see all of them, along with devices like the Medis one and even exotic glucose-powered ones (which sound like the least offensive of all, and have garnered lots of attention from Sony recently) soon enough.