NEW YORK-Industry giants and unknown start-ups are heading into the home stretch of the race to make fuel cells commercially viable and available by 2002 as the next generation of power for wireless devices.
Whether they run on methanol, the main ingredient in windshield-wiper fluid, or on zinc or aluminum, these new energy sources promise to render obsolete even the most advanced rechargeable batteries available today.
Compared with energy densities of 100 kilowatt-hours for lithium-ion batteries and 200-300 kWh for lithium-polymer batteries, fuel cells promise energy densities of up to 3,000 kWh, said Atakan Ozbek, senior energy analyst for Allied Business Intelligence, Oyster Bay, N.Y.
“Fuel cells don’t burn anything, but they don’t store energy either. You click onto the phone a small ampul of methanol or a small stack of zinc or aluminum. It’s actually very practical,” he said.
“The biggest challenges are efficiency of fuel storage, removal of excess heat in devices powered above 1 watt and miniaturization into a package of less than 50 cc’s (cubic centimeters).”
Motorola Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Toshiba are most likely to be the first to market, in Ozbek’s view. Ozbek completed a report in late August, “Portable Fuel Cell Markets-Global Portable Fuel Cell Opportunities in Portable Applications with an Intense Focus on Wireless Applications.”
“Toshiba has its own research and real expertise in batteries. It already has fuel cells for laptops, as of last year, and it is now trying to scale them down in size for wireless phones,” Ozbek said.
“Motorola has its own in-house research and is working with Los Alamos National Labs. They’re saying three years, but I think they don’t want to say sooner because that would energize their competitors.”
Ericsson Inc. and Nokia Corp. have taken minority stakes in joint ventures to miniaturize and commercialize fuel cell technologies for wireless devices.
“Ericsson requires more R&D. Nokia is much more skeptical than other handset makers about fuel cells, perhaps because it’s a market leader,” he said.
Notwithstanding these considerations, Ozbek said he believes Ericsson and Nokia will at least have some prototypes available by next year.
“The gimmick none of the handset makers wants to talk about is what I call the bypass. I think they will come to market with fuel cells as a secondary power source if the phone battery runs out. Then, two years later, they will replace batteries altogether with fuel cells,” he said.
Handset makers are also reducing power consumption, with 3-watt phones available today, 2.5-watt phones in the offing soon and 1.7-watt phones coming up shortly thereafter. But at the same time, WAP, 2.5-generation and third-generation wireless will collectively increase handset energy demand by as much as 40 percent.
While computer chips have increased their performance by 3,000 percent during the past decade, battery performance has risen by just 70 percent to 80 percent. That is because currently available battery technology is fast approaching the upper limits of its physical capabilities.
Duracell and Eveready, which are known for disposable batteries, lack in-house fuel cell research and development efforts. Consequently, Ozbek said he believes they are likely to buy into or buy outright some of the smaller companies involved in fuel-cell technologies.
There are a host of players in this area. Companies looking into fuel cells that run on methanol include Manhattan Scientifics, founded by a former researcher from Los Alamos National Labs, the Enable Fuel Cells unit of DCH Technology and Medis Technologies, based in New York City.
Several companies also are developing versions of fuel cells that are powered through the chemical reaction that certain metals undergo when exposed to air. Since zinc and aluminum are solids, unlike liquid methanol, manufacture of fuel cells using metals may prove to be easier, Ozbek said.
Toronto-based Energy Ventures is working on an aluminum-based fuel cell. Metallic Power, a California company, and Evonyx, located in upstate New York, are developing zinc-air fuel cells.
“Evonyx has been very quiet, but I am expecting to hear something from them by November. Metallic Power almost went bankrupt, but it got a second round of venture financing recently. It must deliver something by mid-2001,” Ozbek said.
