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| DLM Fuel Cell Under
Development
A methanol-fueled module could boost running times
of portable devices.
By William Leventon for Office.com Nov. 16, 2000 — A small but powerful new energy source has moved a step closer to the marketplace. More Energy Ltd., an Israeli subsidiary of New York-based Medis Technologies Ltd., has completed the first phase of a project to develop a direct liquid methanol, or DLM, fuel cell. Medis executives hope the DLM fuel cell will someday replace batteries that power cellular phones, laptop computers and other portable electronic devices. In a demonstration, Medis' DLM module — the basic building block of a fuel cell — produced 0.24 watts and 0.9 volts. According to the company, a fuel cell made up of eight of these 1x1x3/8-inch modules could power a cellular phone.
Many researchers are excited about fuel cell technology, which promises far more energy per unit size than batteries. A top-of-the-line lithium-ion battery in a laptop computer might last four hours before it needs a recharge, notes Chao-Yang Wang, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State University. But a similarly sized methanol fuel cell could power the laptop for as long as 30 hours. "It’s a quantum jump, an order-of-magnitude increase in performance," Wang says. A fuel cell converts the chemical energy of a fuel into electrical energy. Many of the cells currently being developed use hydrogen as a fuel, but hydrogen is a flammable gas that's usually pressurized — factors that complicate storage and transportation of the fuel. To eliminate the problems associated with hydrogen, the Medis cell uses liquid methanol. The cell taps the energy in methanol by combining it with oxygen at room temperature to produce electricity. In most miniature fuel cells, a solid proton exchange membrane, or PEM, serves as the electrolyte. But these solid PEMs aren't effective barriers to methanol crossover, notes Wang, who is also a fuel cell researcher and director of Penn State's Electrochemical Engine Center. Next page: How Medis plans to market its technology
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