Commercial launch of Toshiba’s first Direct Methanol fuel Cell in Japan
When you think mobility, think batteries and not wireless communication protocol such as WiFi or WiMax, especially if you are living in Japan, as electric outlet in various public buildings are not readily seen or even available. If you are the lucky one and you happen to find one, you probably won’t see a chair and a table beside it. Oh, yes, read the fine print on the battery specification on such devices like your mobile PCs. Basically, cut the maximum operating time that you can use your battery for by half due to various reason one being the dissipation of your CPU due to multitude of applications and functionality on such devices.
As a result of this existing handicap which forcing manufacturer of batteries to either come up with the ground working fundamental design or use of fancy substances to increase the efficiency and lifetime of battery especially for mobile devices. One such technology which is attracting the attention of manufacturer of such devices is Direct Methanol Fuel Cell or DMFC for short. DMFC is nothing new in fact there are several companies that come up with various design for a DMFC product one being Sony. But the large size of such fuel cells has been an issue for its commercialization. This brings us to Toshiba’s announcement on development of portable DMFC capable of delivering power to mobile digital consumer products. The newly developed DMFC, Dynario with a dedicated fuel cartridge for fueling on the go is the first such product for Toshiba. The new Dynario runs on mix of methanol and ambient oxygen, where the chemical reaction between the two in the fuel cell produces electricity. Once fueled with an injection of highly concentrated methanol solution from its dedicated cartridge, Dynario will start to generate electricity which can be supplied to a digital consumer product such as mobile phone or a digital media player via a USB cable. Just on a single refill of methanol which can be made in around 20 second, Dynario can generate sufficient power to charge two typical mobile phones. Dynario comes with fuel feed structure ensuring uniform methanol delivery and stable output to any attached devices which is fine-tuned thanks to its built-in microcomputer. Furthermore, performance has been optimized due to Dynario’s hybrid structure which uses lithium-ion battery charged by the fuel cell to store electricity. The dedicated fuel cartridge was co-developed with Toyo Seikan kaisha, one of Japan’s leading packaging container companies. Dynario and its fuel cartridge both comply with the international Electrotechnical Commission’s safety standards. Dynario will be sold at a limited quantity, 3000 units to be exact through Toshiba’s dedicated on-line shop. The consumer can place their order on Oct. 22nd for an expected delivery by Oct. 29. The price tag on Dynario is 29,800 yen and for its fuel cartridge is 3,150 yen which comes in a set of five. With a fuel tank capacity of 14ml, Dynario can generate 5V of DC power output at 400mA and input of 5V DC and 500mA. Dynario’s approximate form factor is W150 x D21 x H74.5 mm and it weighs only 280g without the fuel
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[...] methanol fuel cell. One such company is Panasonic that today made an announcement on development of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) offering a high power output and durability. The newly developed DMFC is capable of [...]