Alcohol to power notebooks

NEAH, A SMALL WASHINGTON BASED START-UP has managed to create a new type of fuel cell. The cells are based on standard methanol fuel cells but use a completely different electrode technology to get a big boost in energy density.

The new fuel cells use carefully honeycombed silicon with a coating of platinum inside it. Conventional fuel cells use carbon electrodes and a polymer electrolyte proton exchange membrane which Neah claims is far less efficient. The report on SiliconStrategies indicates that the new fuel cells will be capable of two to three times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries.

In a slightly worrying addition, Neah has said that the fuel cell will run on a combination of Methanol and hydrogen peroxide. Most people know the latter as a bleach but it is frequently used where high power densities are needed, for instance to drive the propellers of torpedoes.

It is widely thought that hydrogen peroxide leaking from a torpedo was what caused the first explosion onboard the Kursk, the Russian nuclear submarine which sank in August 2000. µ