Though a number of companies have shown off fuel cells for cell phones and MP3 players, a company out of New Jersey says it has come up with one that can power a notebook.
Millennium Cell is showing off a fuel cell at the Intel Developer Forum that it says can run a notebook for eight hours. The company"s goal is to produce fuel cells for notebook manufacturers by 2007. Fuel cells are tiny power packs that generate electricity through a chemical reaction between oxygen and a fuel such as methanol. Unlike most other fuel cells, this one doesn"t rely on methanol. Instead, it extracts hydrogen from a metal-hydrogen compound (in the prototype, it"s sodium hydride). Methanol provides less energy than hydrogen--which is why most developers are aiming fuel cells at low-energy devices like MP3 players--but it is easier to store.