Some quick background: DMFCs produce electricity from a reaction of methanol, water, and air—the only by products are a small amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide. You refill the fuel cell with a few squirts of methanol, and presto, you're able to charge gadgets without a wall socket.

The idea has been in development for 10 years, and Toshiba says that they're "seriously considering and researching the next model to [be available for the] worldwide market."

IDGNS tested the new Dynario charger on gear like the PSP and iPod, and say it pretty much does its job flawlessly—though it won't support every device you connect to its USB socket, including the iPhone. Toshiba has a list, and says about four out of five gadgets should work.

The ¥29,800 (roughly $325) charger is about the size of a PSP, and has a brushed metal finish. It has a small battery to "kick start" the power generation, which charges itself in operation.

50ml refill bottles/cartridges come in packs of 5 for ¥3150 (about $35), so clearly this isn't cost-effective yet. IDGNS says each methanol bottle is good for about 3.5 refills, and each refill charges a cellphone twice.

And while the charger itself is cleared for airline travel, the methanol bottles aren't. Toshiba hopes to sell them at airports for quick charges before or after flights. So travel aside, maybe the technology has more potential for emergency kits for use in blackouts and natural disasters? Time will tell. [PC World]

The first 3,000 run will cost 29800 Yen ($328), and you get five cartridges for 3150 Yen ($34), which makes it cost ineffective if you're talking about practical charging. But if you really need power on the go and you don't have time to charge up traditionally, this is the future—so long as you're part of the first 3,000 that they'll test this out on before going on a wider release. [Toshiba Japan via Engadget]

Apart from the weird look, the home theater speaker is particularly interesting as it can run for months without needing a recharge.

I'm not so sure about the indoor fuel charger, however. Would it be cheaper than just connecting your devices to your computer or power plug? []

This new cell utilizes only four components—a water reservoir and a chamber containing metal hydride separated by a thin membrane with an assembly of electrodes that conduct electricity underneath. Because of the small size of the cell, the team was able to eliminate the pump, pressure sensor, and controlling electronics that create such a power drain in typical fuel cells.

The first designs of the cell were capable of generating 0.7 volts and a current of 0.1 milliamps for 30 hours—but they claim that new versions can deliver 1 milliamp at a similar voltage. [New Scientist via Cleantech via DVICE]

Representative Massa made the 300 mile NY to DC trip in a car that has a maximum range of 200 miles. How? By enlisting the help of two SUVs to tow two fuel cell cars while not in use.

Massa drove one fuel cell car while a hybrid SUV [Chevy Tahoe] towing an additional SUV followed along. Once he got half way, he switched to new fuel cell car [which I assume was towed to the half way point sometime earlier so that it would be waiting for the environmentally-conscious congressman]. The empty fuel cell was then towed back by the first SUV. As he continued on his journey, the second SUV followed. Once Massa arrived in DC, the second SUV then towed the second fuel cell car back to NY.

So basically, one SUV traveled 400 miles and one SUV traveled 600 miles for a total of 1000 miles on a 300 mile trip. That's not even counting the mileage on the fuel cell car. Nice work there Captain Planet. [Famous DC via Boing Boing]

After all, the idea of carrying around in your bag a bunch of liquid methanol cartridges doesn't feel like a very good idea to me. On the other side, one single cartridge will give you 25 watt-hours of power, which is not too shabby. Not at all: According to Mobion, on single cartridge will be able to charge your average cellphone ten times. It would also allow o play 10,000 songs or 100 hours of video in an iPod, or take 6,000 pictures on a high end DSLR camera.

Definitely, we want.

Albany, N.Y., December 10, 2008 — MTI MicroFuel Cells ("MTI Micro"), the developer of the award-winning Mobion® off-the-grid portable power solutions and a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology, Incorporated ("MTI") (NASDAQ: MKTY) unveiled today a new product intent external power-pack prototype capable of providing up to 25 hours of on-the-go power with each cartridge. This compact and light weight fuel cell charger comes with a removable cartridge that can be swapped for a new one when depleted. Each additional cartridge gives consumers another 25 Watt-hours of power. With the Mobion® charger, for the first time, consumers can envision a world where power is instantly available where ever they are, when ever they need it.

Mobion® charger with removable cartridge delivers 25 hours of power to multiple devices on-the-go.

The new Mobion® self-sufficient power pack includes a USB interface, allowing the prototype to also be used as an independent energy source for a variety of purposes, including for recharging mobile phones, digital cameras, portable media players and other handheld electronic devices on the go.

With the amount of power from one small cartridge, the charger is designed to fully charge an average cell phone battery over 10 times; for an average user, this could power a cell phone for approximately one month, play 10,000 thousand songs or watch over 100 hours of video on their popular MP3 player, or take over 6000 pictures on a high end professional digital camera. In addition, the charger is designed with smooth edges for an easy grip comfortably fitting in the palm of one´s hand, and has interactive LED lights and easy-to-swap cartridges for intuitive use.

"Our Mobion® product strategy is in line with what consumers on-the-go need. On average, in the U.S., mobile professionals carry 3.4 portable electronic devices with them, and are now buying a universal charger to conveniently recharge all their device batteries." said Peng Lim, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MTI. "However, these conventional chargers still need to plug into an electrical outlet to recharge once the energy is used. Our Mobion® charger allows consumers to charge their devices anytime, anywhere by eliminating the need to plug their devices or Mobion charger into a wall outlet and wait for a recharge — our Mobion® charger generate electric power on the go and provides true mobility."

At the core of MTI Micro´s compact charger prototype is its proprietary third generation Mobion® Chip, a design architecture that embodies a reduction in the size, complexity, and cost of fuel cell construction. These changes drive improvements in reliability, manufacturability and low cost products. The Chip is based on 100% methanol fuel, passive, direct methanol fuel cell technology, and integrates a power module with fluid conditioning that allows the system to run in a wide environmental range including temperatures from 0oC to 40oC at any humidity level — an industry standard and a requirement of many OEMs who want to integrate fuel cells into their products. In laboratory testing, this third generation Mobion® Chip demonstrated power of over 62 mW/cm2 while producing more than 1800 Watt Hours Per Kilogram (Wh/kg) of energy from the direct methanol fuel feed.

"These chargers have been built using processes developed to increase throughput efficiency, intensify our testing, and increase reliability and consistency among units", said Jim Prueitt, Vice President of Engineering and Operations. "We are committed to ensure a process that delivers the engineering and manufacturing rigor necessary to make consistent, reliable products."

MTI Micro has plans to launch a product by the end of 2009 and pursue the consumer market with target applications which include hand-held communication, and other power-hungry portable electronic devices that can benefit from Mobion® extended run-time, cord-free rechargeable power packs with continuous access to power anytime, anywhere.

[MTI via Cnet]

The new kit—because it may look like a race car but let's be honest, it's a science edu-toy—still comes with the solar panel and hydrogen station so that you can use the sun's rays to convert H2O to H2 and O2. But the car itself now has glowing LEDs, responds to an IR remote, and runs longer and faster with the same amount of fuel. Taking a cue from auto makers and gas companies who release literally green advertisements to convince the public they aren't part of the problem, Horizon decided to change the car's translucent tint from blue to, yes, green. The difference, of course, is that Horizon definitely isn't part of the problem. Only time will tell, however, if they are part of the solution. Meantime, here's a fun Christmas gift for anyone that still has $120 to spend on progress! [Horizon via Gizmag]

They've also got a paperback-sized one that'll charge gadgets. Both are supposed to be commercially available in 2012, though we won't believe we can carry around tanks of methanol laptop power until we actually do it. [Panasonic (Google Translated) via Crunchgear]

Part of the gaff was, of course, due to that fact that there are just 60 hydrogen stations in the U.S., and only two of those are open to the public "without prior arrangement," says Reuters. Nevertheless, event promoter Catherine Dunwoody, executive director of the California Fuel Cell Partnership (a major tour supporter), was optimistic about hydrogen's chances.

"There's a hunger out there for clean, safe vehicles," Brubaker said. "The common refrain everywhere we went was 'Where do we get these cars?'" As a personal aside, I, too, would be interested in such a venture, especially if it meant large swaths of my morning commute involved hopping on the back of a truck, and having someone else do the driving for me.

More seriously, hydrogen as a major fuel source is pretty much nowhere near becoming mainstream. As the article notes, bigwig auto makers like Honda and General Motors only have plans to test a handful of hydrogen vehicles this year and next in select markets.

A best-case scenario out of the car industry has only 2 million hydrogen-powered electric vehicles on the roads by 2020.

At least there was some diversity on this cross-country trip: Cars were provided by Honda, GM, Toyota Motor Corp, Ford Motor Co, BMW AG, Daimler AG, Hyundai Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co, and Volkswagen AG. No word on those flatbeds. [Reuters]

However, they claim that the kit could be the first step towards replacing conventional batteries in portable devices like iPods or mobile phone chargers. I don't know how practical a commercial application would be, or whether or not I would be willing to give up a single drop of my precious vodka, but you can pick up the kit now for $99. [Horizonfuelcell]

The team says its new cathode, made of a conductive plastic called PEDOT, could be manufactured for just several hundred dollars. Even better, PEDOT is much more stable than platinum and doesn't have platinum's pesky clumping problems or aversion to carbon monoxide.

The researchers are now planning on building fuel cells with the cathode in 3D, to maximize the surface area available to generate a current. With this new breakthrough and the solar-charged process engineered by MIT scientists a few days ago, it's been kind of an awesome week for fuel cell science. [ABC via Treehugger]

While lugging around laptop fuel doesn't sound all that much better than batteries, this methanol system would shave 65% of the weight from what our soldiers carry now (which is a hefty 27 pounds of batteries per 72-hour mission). And if we were soldiers, we'd gladly spend that weight savings on guns and diapers. [cleantech via cnet]

Not surprisingly, Genenpax has kept the exact details of their technology under wraps, but they did say that their new process, while based on existing technology, is expected to produce hydrogen from water for longer time than any method currently available. Furthermore, WES does not require a hydrogen reformer, a high-pressure hydrogen tank, or any special catalysts to get the job done.

During a recent conference, Genepax unveiled a fuel cell stack with a rated output of 120W and a fuel cell system with a rated output of 300W—and there are plans for a 1kw-class generation system for use in both electric vehicles and houses sometime in the future. At this point, the cost of production on the water-powered vehicle engine itself is around about ¥2,000,000 (US$18,522), but they hope to drop the price to ¥500,000 (US$4600) or less if they succeed in bringing it into mass production. [Tech On]

This vehicle from University of Waterloo in Canada uses a 400kg fuel cell to turn on-board hydrogen and airborne oxygen into energy that powers two 67-kW electric motors. If the SUV demands more power, it has a backup battery that is charged in part by a regenerative brake, like on today's hybrids.

They actually let me drive the thing. Here's what I thought: The ride is extremely smooth. Since the SUV doesn't have an engine, it's relatively quiet, especially when accelerating. Most of the noise comes from the oxygen intake system, but it only comes in quick bursts. The brakes are sensitive, but part of the reason for that is to use the kinetic energy harvested by braking for recharging the battery. A touchscreen computer in the center displays all the diagnostics, and shows where the vehicle is getting its power.

The truck holds about 4kg of hydrogen packed at 5000psi, which gives it the equivalent of ~25mpg. It is extremely clean, as the only emission given off by the vehicle is a bit of water, a byproduct of the fuel cell process. It tops out around 65mph, but that can be improved in the future. The main problem with the fuel cell SUV is the lack of places to fill up the tank. Hydrogen fueling stations are a long way from the mainstream, and the team said there are only two locations where they can reload on the way to Washington, DC, their final destination on this tour. Hopefully this will change soon, because a clean, abundantly available fuel source seems like a pretty good option to me. [Challenge X]

Looking at the gamut of fuel cells (and not just the methanol ones covered in the ruling), the FAA appears to be afraid that the little chemical powerplants might explode. According to an FAA report from April 2: "Fuel sources [in fuel cells] range from highly flammable to relatively inert."

In addition to standard evaluation, the FAA says it will conduct "flammability tests...on existing fuel cartridges." And not just on individual units. From what I can tell of this report, somewhere the FAA will soon, or already has, set fire to bulk containers of fuel cells, and tried to ignite fuel cells that are in operation, connected to laptops or other electronics:And I thought my job was fun. [Press Release on DOT Ruling; FAA PDF on Flammability Testing]

Corgi isn't planning on stopping here either. When talke dto CEO Michael Cookson, he said it's "just the tip of the iceberg." Basically, they're looking at converting "anything to do with batteries" to fuel-cell power (I suggested toy robots), and plan on launching "a range of products" in the next year or so. Best of all, they'll all be using a universal charger—though he cautioned, the H2Go's hydrogen station might not be it. The US launch for H2Go will in Aug. or Sept. for $129.99 w/ the solar panel, or $99 without. [Giz@Toy Fair 2008]