Fuel Cells to Power Portable Electronics

Feb. 11 -- In the realm of portable electronics, there's a power struggle brewing. Literally.

Laptop and portable computers are getting faster and more powerful processors. Bright, colorful display screens are appearing on ever-smaller cell phones. And handheld computers are turning into wireless radios to send and receive Internet data.

But all of these snazzy features have at least one thing in common: They demand lots of electrical power. And experts say current rechargeable-battery technology hasn't progressed at the same pace as these other portable technologies, leaving a so-called power gap.

But bridging that gap may now be possible through fuel cells, a clean-energy technology that produces electricity from the chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen.

National Commitment

Developed as part of NASA's 1960s space program, fuel cells are "nonpolluting" since the only byproduct to power production is pure water. For decades, much of the attention for this clean-energy technology has been focused on large applications — alternative power plants and new "engines" for cars.

But at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., last week, President Bush and other government officials were shown how fuel cells could be used for other purposes.

Companies such as MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc. in Albany, N.Y., for example, showed off a portable fuel-cell device that could provide power to cell phones and laptops for days and weeks on end.

To spur such thinking "beyond the normal," President Bush called for Congress to budget $1.7 billion over the next five years for the further development of fuel-cell technology.

Such money will undoubtedly be useful in helping to overcome many of the obstacles that still remain in making fuel cells practical for everyday use — especially in portable devices.

In addition to making hydrogen fuel readily available and safe, researchers will need to find ways to shrink the size of fuel cells even further without sacrificing efficiency.