Tag archive: fuel

Forget solar, wind and clean burning coal; oranges are the future of fuel. Tropicana's innovative new  billboard ads in France are completely powered by oranges. They have taken the old science fair idea to a higher level. The simple layout of the billboard uses the oranges to power a sign reading “Energie Naturelle,” which means natural energy for those without Google translate. The point of the ad is that the clean green energy… Read More

The nature of America and its dependence on oil is well documented, exceedingly so. It is the blood that flows through the veins of our nation. It is the power that defines our identity and the fuel that powers the world. It is also one of the greatest source of anxiety for the future of humanity, as the fossil fuel reserves dwindle. If you head online to your search engine of choice and type in the keywords “oil”, “consumption” and “America”,… Read More

Ford has announced that a new report from the EPA shows that it has improved fuel economy of its fleet more than any other automaker since 2004. Combined car and truck fuel economy has improved nearly 20% in that time, almost twice as much as the nearest competitor. The most interesting part of the fuel economy improvement plans for automotive enthusiasts is that Ford is not increasing fuel economy at the cost of performance. Ford is actually… Read More

You still can’t fill up your PDA with methanol and run it for days like MTI Micro was anticipating back in 2004, but the company’s fuel cell technologies for portable electronics came one step closer to reality on Tuesday with the introduction of a universal charger prototype. The pocket-sized charger generates enough electricity from a methanol fuel cell to recharge a cell phone ten times via a standard USB jack. Much like… Read More

Next Monday, the Intel Core I7 launches, and I’ve been using a system that Intel sent out which not only has the Core I7 and X58 chipset, but two 4870 X2 ATI graphics cards and two of the company’s new high-speed flash drives. To say that this system, (which has 4 real cores, and 4 virtual cores through hyperthreading, for a total of 8) is fast would be vastly understating the experience. The word amazing comes to mind, and I can hardly… Read More

Though most of us associate the term “fuel cell” with futuristic cars zipping around without gasoline, a company called MTI Micro has been working to develop its own breed of micro fuel cells for powering portable electronics. On Friday, the company revealed its latest prototype, a GPS unit powered by a methanol fuel cell. According to MTI, the fuel cell generates about three times as much energy as four disposable AA… Read More

Hydrogen fuel cells may usually come up when discussing next-gen fuel sources for automobiles, but Millenium Cell Inc. and Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies envisioned a different use for the technology: a portable generator. The companies announced on Thursday that they would debut a pre-production version of their HydroPak portable hydrogen-fueled generator at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The HydroPak will use disposable… Read More

At a company event in Tokyo yesterday, Canon Inc. showed off a series of prototype hydrogen fuel cells which, it hopes, may begin replacing batteries in portable electronics gadgets like digital cameras, music players, and digital assistants within three years. Canon showed three cells, a large-ish form aimed for devices like printers, another sized appropriately for digital still cameras, and a tiny third cell, roughly 1.6 by 1.3 inches (3… Read More

Toshiba is playing with different power sources to run MP3 players in the future as today they announced they’d developed two prototype direct methanol fuel cell units. These units are beingtested to validate their operation.   The new fuel units, said Toshiba, have an output power of 100mW and 300mW and have been appliedto a flash-memory-based digital audio player and an HDD-based digital audio player, respectively. The 100mW is… Read More

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has set a new world record for fuel efficiency. The world record-holding PAC Car operates on a hydrogen-powered fuel cell. Using the lower heating values of hydrogen and gasoline as a conversion basis, this world record now stands at 5385 kilometers per liter of gasoline. PAC Car has an optimized fuel cell system that produces electrical energy from hydrogen and drives two high-efficiency electric… Read More

Leveraging SANYO's latest advancements in fuel cells that increase the longevity of notebook batteries, IBM and SANYO jointly developed a basic design of a fuel cell power source. Based on thedesign, the companies developed a prototype fuel cell system that could supply up to 8 hours of power per cartridge on current and future ThinkPad models. Unlike other prototypes that require a modified design to outfit fuel cell batteries,… Read More

“The world's largest cell-phone maker, which only eight months ago signaled its commitment to fuel cells, said the technology isn't yet mature. However, Nokia's Matti Naskali left the door open for future use of the technology. “Fuel-cell technology is promising and Nokia continues to follow it closely,” he said.” Meanwhile Toshiba just announced the world smallest fuel cell developed for use in… Read More

The fuel cell will feature in the 2006 edition of Guinness World Records, the perennially popular compendium of record-breaking feats and achievements. Designed for integration into devices as small as digital music players, Toshiba's DMFC is as long and wide as a thumb, only 22 x 56 x 4.5mm (maximum of 9.1mm with fuel tank). This size advantage offers greater design freedom to developers of handheld electronic devices, without any… Read More

 "Once fuel cells enter the mainstream market, they will provide significant improvements in energy storage and also allow portable electronic devices to incorporate new features while simultaneously increasing their operating time," says Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager Sara Bradford. The hype surrounding micro fuel cells is understandable. Their ability to deliver more energy per volume weight compared to existing… Read More

Cell phones are becoming increasingly multifunctional, equipped with TV viewing and game playing capabilities, and the trend is forcing handsets to consume more power. Currently available lithium-ion batteries for cell phones, however, last only about two hours if users continuously watch TV on their terminals. A handset powered by a fuel cell is expected to last more than twice as long, the sources said. The planned fuel cell would extract… Read More