Alcohol-powered computing unlikely before 2008
Inexpensive to produce and a relatively stable source of power, methanol has been the subject of R&D efforts for several years as notebook makers search for an alternative power source that can extend the life of current rechargeable batteries. Fuel cells -- which pump methanol through a fine chemically reactive mesh that extracts hydrogen from the liquid and converts these into a steady source of electrical power - have taken the clear lead as the next generation of battery technology.
Longtime notebook PC stalwart Toshiba has led the charge to develop workable methanol pumps, having announced it had made the technology work as far back as March 2003. At that point, Toshiba was anticipating that 2004 would see full product available, with 900g cartridges containing 100mL of methanol able to power a notebook for 10 hours.
Two years later, however, a number of technological and practical hurdles still remain before the technology can become widely available, concedes Masa Okumura, the company's director of worldwide product planning, who now says it could well be early 2008 before the technology is commercially available.
"We do have a working prototype in our research labs," says Okumura, in Melbourne this week for Toshiba's MobileXchange conference. "It is now real, but we need to explore issues such as reliability, especially around different usage environments such as what would happen with the methanol in hot and cold climates. Theoretically, everyone understand what should happen, but we cannot know for sure until they're field tested".
Methanol-based fuel cell technology recently got a symbolic show of support after it was approved for air transport by the United Nations Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, which will establish regulations for the packaging and shipment of the cartridges, which some people envision will eventually be as ubiquitous as AA batteries for powering notebooks and all sorts of consumer electronic devices.
Other practical issues remain, however: since methanol can only be used once, Toshiba and other notebook makers must figure out how to both shrink the fuel cell technology into a portable form factor (current versions are as big as a notebook PC port replicator) and also how to combine it with current battery form factors, since notebook users will not react well if fuel cell availability were to require sacrifice of current rechargeable batteries.
External fuel pumps, feeding the devices, may be a practical option for notebook PCs, whose users are accustomed to power cords and AC/DC converters. In smaller devices such as mobile phones, however, such options would not be possible -- meaning it could be even longer before fuel pumps truly take their place in the battery panoply. "This will change the way people understand power," says Okumura. "But we need to take our time to make sure the safety and usability are well understood before we actually miniaturise it".