Samsung: Water-Powered Cell Phones by 2010

Crave:

Samsung has developed a new kind of cell phone battery that's powered by water and is aiming to bring it to market by 2010.

Here's how it works: When the handset is switched on, reaction between metal and water in the phone produce hydrogen gas. This is then channeled to the fuel cell, where it reacts with oxygen in the air to generate power.

Samsung says the new battery could last for up to 10 hours. Based on four hours of use daily on average, the hydrogen cartridge would have to be replaced about every five days.

Read the whole story: Crave

Comments

[CharltonHestonsGUN]

Israel at 60: A vibrant nation still in search of itself
The story of Israel at 60 is the tale of a little town named Sderot whose children play indoors because of Palestinian rockets, of a world-class tech industry that pioneered Wi-Fi and instant messaging, of a nation filled with pride and fierce patriotism, yet living in fear of annihilation from abroad and of a demographic time bomb at home.
Posted Apr 19, 2008 06:54 AM PST
Category: ISRAEL

Israel did not pioneer WiFi. Al Gore did! :)

Seriously, WiFi was invented by NCR/AT&T in the Netherlands.

[SusanRen]

This sounds like something for the consumer to waste their hard earned dollars on. I thought the economy was getting worse?

[jsarets]

(part 2/2)

So I think I'll stick with my electrochemical phone battery that charges from the grid. I chose to live in a municipality (Alameda, CA) that offers particularly clean electricity (84% carbon-neutral), most of which is generated at nearby geothermal and hydroelectric plants, cutting down on transmission losses. The phone, laptop, and similar consumer electronics markets have been responsible for significant advances in lithium-ion chemistries, many of which address larger applications such as EVs.

in other news, the solar power industry has finally discovered thermal storage. Who says we can't have solar power at night or on cloudy days? A century after the commercialization of the coffee thermos, we might be starting to add a little clarity to our thinking about energy. At least in Europe, in not here in the land of the gaffe and the home of the gotcha.

[jsarets]

This report is highly confused. Here's the way the hydrogen/water cycle works: H20 + Energy -> H2 + O2 -> H20 + Energy. The hydrogen gas is just a transport medium for the energy added during hydrolysis and released during oxidation in the fuel cell, minus considerable conversion losses. There is no self-contained, exothermic reaction converting water to energy.

The article mentions that the phone will use a hydrogen cartridge. The hydrogen may be produced from water, but not by the phone itself. That would be done in a large hydrolysis facility using electricity generated from any source, renewable or hydrocarbon, in a process that is approximately 22% efficient. Hydrogen fuel cells based on the predominant proton exchange membrane (PEM) process have a theoretical maximum efficiency of 50% (less in practice). In short, the hydrogen/water cycle requires about 10 units of input electricity per unit output electricity.

As an energy transfer medium, hydrogen is remarkably ineffective even compared to other not-so-efficient methods of energy transmission, such as the electric grid (which manages a 3:1 transmission ratio). While we should expect some sort of compelling advantage to using hydrogen as a medium in exchange for its terrible performance, the prospect of transmitting energy via pressurized gas pipelines and tankers is surely less attractive than passing current through conductive wire.

(continued...)

[WIpatriot]

Hope they don't spring a leak or freeze up...lol.