Antig and AVC from Taiwan are set to introduce a fuel cell for laptops at the upcoming CeBit exhibition next week in Hannover, Germany. They claim this technology is ready for mass production in the latter half of 2006.
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The fuel cell from Antig and AVC. (Gizmodo) |
The fuel cell is the size of a CD-ROM, weighs 1.7 kg, provides 45 watts of power, and operates continuously for 8 hours. However, there are hopes that Antig will not follow in the footsteps of NEC, which in 2003 claimed that laptops using their fuel cell technology would be available in 2004, yet this year they are still “hoping the product will be more effective and capable of running continuously for 40 hours.” Nevertheless, the Japanese electronics company has launched a laptop with an integrated fuel cell that lasts for 5 hours. The battery weighs 0.9 kg, contains 300 cm³ of methanol, and uses a catalyst to separate it into oxygen and hydrogen to generate heat.
Meanwhile, Toshiba also announced plans to release a laptop equipped with this technology starting in 2004, only to later admit at CeBit 2005 that they needed an additional 3 years to finalize it.
P.T
