Motorola creates gas-powered cell phones


by Ben Charny, ZDNet News

The company states that by 2010, cell phones, personal digital
assistants and laptops could be running on methane gas-powered
batteries.

Gas-powered cell phones aren't just a lot of hot air, Motorola said
Tuesday.

Motorola researchers announced Tuesday that they have successfully
demonstrated a methane gas-powered fuel cell, which can provide enough
juice between chargings for a month of cell phone calls.

The fuel cell is essentially a miniature electrochemical plant that fits
into a belt holster. Inside the cell, methane is stored in an area the
size of a ballpoint pen's ink holder. A chemical reaction releases
oxygen, heat and electricity. The electricity then either powers the
phone directly or, in the case of Motorola's product, charges another
battery that can then power the phone.

The trick, says Motorola, isn't creating small devices to do each step,
such as guiding the methane's path or ensuring the electricity is sent
to the phone. Instead, Motorola has created one device to do everything.

On Tuesday, the company said it has managed to lump together each of the
working parts into a device that measures about 2 inches wide, 4 inches
long and about a half-inch thick. For a cell phone owner, that amounts
to carrying a device a little bit longer and wider than an ordinary cell
phone battery.

Motorola isn't alone in its research. The consumer-electronics industry
has been hunting for a way to replace nickel cadmium batteries that
power most portable electronic devices in the world today. Methane has
become the fuel of choice. It is plentiful--coming mostly from renewable
resources such as decomposing garbage at landfills--and can be
compressed from a gas into a liquid, which is much easier to use.

Consumer-electronic giants NEC and Sony are developing similar types of
batteries. Smaller research outfits including Mechanical Technology and
Manhattan Scientifics have recently announced similar breakthroughs.

"We are at the point where the technology has been proven," said Greg
Dolan, vice president for communications and policy at The Methanol
Institute. "Now the challenge is to prepare the fuel cells for mass
production."

That could take anywhere between two and four years, most analysts
agree. For example, Allied Business Intelligence says there could be 200
million of these batteries powering cell phones, personal digital
assistants and laptops by 2010.

Motorola isn't predicting when it will sell the batteries on a wide
scale. NEC expects its product to be in production between 2003 and
2005. Sony has yet to say when it expects to commercialize its
technology.


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