14 DAY TRIAL // After announcing their intention to develop mobile phones powered by fuel cells instead of conventional batteries early this year, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in association with MTI Micro has finally managed to come up with a fuel cell that can charge a mobile phone in a few hours.
It appears that by combining hydrogen, methanol and air, the 180g fuel cell generates 2 watts of power and can charge a completely drained mobile phone in no more nor less than two hours.
While mobile devices grow to be more high-tech and power consuming each day, Samsung appears to be doing something about it. After successfully using the fuel cells for charging mobile phones for 200 times in a row, Samsung finally announced that they now consider the product to be fit for commercialization.
A single 10cc methanol refill cartridge will work for only 2 recharges and is estimated to cost somewhere around $1. The fuel cell charger is even more convenient because it allows the use of the device while charging.
It is more than clear what the advantages of the fuel cell are. Not only is charging time reduced to 1 fifth of the time one would spend using conventional charging methods, but there is also no need for power. You can charge your mobile phone without requiring a wire, by simply replacing the methanol cartridges in the charger.
This means that Samsung has taken a pretty big step forward and will probably also aim to replace the conventional batteries on other mobile devices, such as MP3 players, digital cameras, PDAs or Notebook PCs.