We’ve been hearing for a long long long long loooooooong time now about how fuel cells are going to be the batteries of the future, since they’re instantly rechargeable with a shot of booze. But like so many promises (::cough:: ::cough::) they haven’t quite materialized yet. Toshiba, though, has just released an actual fuel cell charger in Japan. Unlike the Medis fuel cell charger that we reviewed back in February, Toshiba’s Dynario charger can be topped of with concentrated methanol, which is the whole point of fuel cells… You can just keep refilling them. In about 20 seconds, 50 mL of methanol reacts with oxygen in the air to charge a battery in the device with enough juice to recharge two mobile phones via USB.

As cool as the Dynario is, it’s still very much a first stab at commercializing this kind of technology, nowhere near Samsung’s fantastical 160 hour laptop fuel cell. Only 3000 Dynario units are for sale, and so far, they’re only available in Japan… Toshiba will see how well they work out before committing to further distribution. If you want one, you can find them online at Toshiba’s Shop1048 for $328, plus another $34 for 5 cartridges. Is the neatness worth the cost and inefficiency? No, but for the sake of the technology, I hope these sell like hotcakes. Hotcakes filled with concentrated alcohol. Mmmmmm…

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By Evan Ackerman

We’ve heard it all before: fuel cells are going to power the devices of the future. They’re going to put out more power for longer and be instantly rechargeable with disposable cartridges. Sounds great… But obviously, this hasn’t happened yet. At CTIA last year, though, we were introduced to a company called Medis, who is producing a portable fuel cell charger that you can actually buy right now. It’s between 25 and 40 bucks on Amazon, and we’ll let you know whether this new technology is worth the money in our review, after the jump.

-How It Works

The Medis Xtreme is an honest-to-goodness fuel cell charger. The cartridge contains a mixture of alcohol, sodium borohydride, and alkaline, all stuff which isn’t going to murder the environment (not that you should try to eat it). When the fuel cell is activated, these chemicals combine with the air to generate electricity. Compared to other fuel cells, the Medis technology is a lot less complicated, with a self regulating reaction that makes power without a bunch of electronics or filters or membranes. This makes it cheap, which is good.

Since Medis ships their fuel cells unactivated in a sealed plastic bag, it can sit on the shelf (or in your house) for up to 18 months without losing any charging potential. Once the fuel cell is activated, you’ll need to use it within about 3 months before the cell depletes itself. Once the fuel is consumed, the fuel cell is reduced to nothing more than a plastic case containing some borates, all of which can be recycled.

-What You Get

Medis sent me a “24/7 Xtreme Portable Charger Fuel Cell Power Starter Kit,” which includes a fuel cell cartridge, four adapter tips (USB, mini-USB, Treo, and Nokia) in separate plastic bags in a separate plastic bag, a power cable with a growth on one end that I assume is some kind of converter or regulator, and some instructions. More adapter tips for other devices are also available.

The cartridge itself is sealed in plastic, and comes in its own little pre-addressed box, which (if you open it carefully), can be resealed so that you can mail the fuel cell back to Medis for recycling after you’ve used it up. It’s not prepaid, but it’s a nice environmentally conscious touch. Medis will recycle the plastic directly, and the remaining borates inside get turned into laundry detergent or fire retardant or, um, cosmetics.

-Using It

The fuel cell arrives sealed in plastic and unactivated. To activate it, you peel off a strip around the base, and then squeeze the top and bottom of the cell together to release the fuel:

It takes a significant amount of force to do this; I had to use both of my weak-ass hands to get it to work. I makes all kinds of crunching, squishing, whooshing noises when you do it, and there’s a solidly satisfying CLICK when you push it together all the way. After a little shaking (it’s very sloshy sounding) and a few gentle taps on a hard surface to make sure the fuel is distributed in the cell, a green light comes on on the power cable, and it’s ready to go.

Charging a device is simple… Plug the power cable into the cell, plug your device into the appropriate adapter at the other end, and off you go. The only weird thing is that Medis advises you to place the fuel cell on its side (or upright) for best results, even though the sides are curved and the bottom is flat with feet things on it.

At the moment, you can only recharge one device at once, but Medis has a triple splitter tip just about ready to go. Oh, and on a side note, you’re allowed to take up to three fuel cells on airplanes.

-Does It Work?

It took about 30 seconds for the fuel cell to get going after it was activated. I’d say that’s “instant” for all practical purposes. The Xtreme was able to charge my iPhone at about the same rate as I get from plugging it into a wall adapter. You’re only supposed to charge things for a few hours at a time in order to get the maximum lifetime out of the fuel cell, but that should be enough to top off most devices. Also, Medis recommends not using the power pack to recharge things from dead, since it’s less efficient that way.

Medis says that you can get up to 30 hours talk time or 60-80 hours of audio playback on something like an iPod from a single power pack. That sort of claim is hard to test, and it’s not how most people use their devices. I tested the Xtreme under what I consider normal use, which is to say, I used it as a replacement for a wall outlet to charge my iPhone… At the end of the day, my iPhone is usually about 1/4 charge (sometimes less), and I plugged it into the fuel cell in the evening, unplugging it after the phone was fully charged. This worked great for four days, charged most of the way on the fifth (to 90%ish), and then that was it. Medis estimates that the average smartphone can get up to six charges, so this seems about right.

-Overall Impressions

Well, it’s a fuel cell, which is really cool. It’s got shelf life that beats many other emergency power solutions, and unlike battery packs, it’s ready to go instantly, you don’t have to worry about trickle charging it. It’s also lighter than most battery packs, and in some ways it’s substantially more environmentally friendly, especially with its integrated recycling program. It’s dead simple to use, works quickly and works well, and is ideal for situations where electricity simply isn’t available, like camping, or in emergencies.

There are certainly some downsides, though. Firstly, it’s big. It’s not huge, and it doesn’t weigh that much, but it won’t fit comfortably in your pocket. Although it does have a long shelf life, it also has an expiration date… My guess is that it starts to degrade after 18 months as opposed to just going dead, but still, if you buy it for an emergency, you’d better hope something bad happens within a year and a half or you might not get the performance you paid for. For a “disposable” power solution, it’s also a little on the expensive side, at $25 per single-use cartridge.

Overall, the Medis Xtreme is a good solution for charging your gadgets, and in certain situations, it might even be an ideal solution. For day to day backup power, I might recommend a small USB battery pack (there a tons of options out there) that might only be able to recharge your cellphone once, but it’ll be small and you can recharge it over and over for free. But for those times when you’re actually going to be off the grid for an extended period (whether intentionally or not), the Medis Xtreme fuel cell charger could be just what you need.

You can find the Medis Xtreme charger at some Best Buy stores, and on Amazon.com. The starter kit costs $40, and replacement cartridges are $25 each. An emergency kit that includes a really freakin’ bright flashlight that’s powered directly from the cell is also available for $50:

Oranges sold separately.

[ Medis Xtreme Power Pack ]

By Evan Ackerman

We’ve been waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting) for fuel cell technology to become commercially viable. Now Medis technology has the first generation of their portable, disposable, and relatively cheap fuel cell charger ready to juice up your gadgets, and they were showing it off at the CTIA Wireless Expo here in San Francisco.

The Medis 24-7 Power Pack is portable power system designed to keep your handheld devices operational while you are on the go. The Power Pack has enough power to drive many handheld devices when the battery is nearly depleted and it will also function as a portable charger.

The 24-7 Power Pack provides sufficient energy to provide up to 30 hours of talk time to an average mobile phone or 60-80 hours of play time for an average iPod. The power is sufficient (1 watt)) to operate, and charge, multiple times, a wide range of the standard and advanced portable electronic devices in the market today.

In its current incarnation, the power pack itself is not directly rechargeable… You use it up, and then recycle the old one (the box it comes in is also a mailing container) and buy a new one. It’s not the most efficient (or the sleekest) system, but it’s a good start. You can buy different adapter tips to charge a wide variety of gadgets, and a supplementary battery cable helps pump up the output enough to charge higher drain electronics like iPhones. Once you engage the fuel system in each cell (by squeezing the unit), you’ve got about 3 months before it goes dead on you. Un-squeezed, it’s got a shelf life of years.

The Medis Power Pack is certainly a first-gen product, but you can buy it now and put it to work for $40 for the starter kit and a bit over $20 for the replacement cells. Medis has some fairly ambitious plans for their product; in the next few years, they’re hoping to introduce replaceable fuel cartridges (as opposed to recyclable cells) as well as a system designed to provide 8 hours of power for laptops. Personally, I’m looking forward to something a bit more, um, svelte.

[ Medis Power Pack ]

Fuel Cell technologies definitely hold a lot of promise, but it looks like the first devices to hit the market are probably going to only appeal to early adopters. The HydroPak from Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies can produce up to 25 watts of power with a combination of replaceable solid fuel cartridges and about a pint of water. That equals about 270 watt-hours of energy which should be enough to recharge a full size laptop about 5 times.

And while the HydroPak produces no exhaust and runs nearly silent, there are unfortunately a few downsides. For one, the half-pound replacement fuel cartridges cost about $20. According to Peter Glaskowski over at Crave, that means a single kilowatt hour from the HydroPak costs $74, where as the same kilowatt hour from a wall outlet costs 10 cents. The HydroPak’s $400 price tag isn’t that expensive, and the unit only weighs about 4 pounds, but for the same amount of money you can buy a considerably more powerful gas generator if you’re looking to use the device as a source of reliable backup power.

Finally, while the HydroPak produces no exhaust, the fuel cartridges use sodium-borohydride which is actually a mildly hazardous chemical. As the fuel is used, the byproducts of the reaction are returned to the sealed cartridge so it should be safe, but there’s always the risk of something happening, particularly in the hands of Joe-consumer. However, there always has to be a first generation of every product, and Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies hopes to have the HydroPak available to consumers sometime this year, which is an important first step.

[ HydroPak Portable Power Generator ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Evan Ackerman

The methanol fuel cell that Samsung has been working on for a while now is looking a lot sexier than it used to. Samsung says that it’s able to run a laptop for eight hours a day, five days a week, for a month without refueling. And when you do need more juice, just feed it a new methanol cartridge and it’s ready to go, no waiting.

Although Samsung has obviously made an effort to integrate the fuel cell unit with the laptop itself, it’s equally obvious that (in its current incarnation) it’s not really practical to do this. Why not keep it separate and just use a cord? Hopefully, the reason is that by the time it’s ready for the market, it’ll be no larger than a conventional battery. Hopefully.

VIA [ AVING ]