Fujitsu claims advance in fuel cell technology

Fujitsu Ltd. has made progress in development of a key component for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC), which are viewed as a future power source for portable equipment. The company is the second in as many weeks to announce development of a new membrane that should help lead to smaller and more efficient fuel cells.

The membrane is at the heart of a fuel cell and separates a mixture of water and methanol from a catalyst. A high concentration of methanol to water is desirable because it lengthens running time, but if this concentration is too high fuel can leak across the membrane and be wasted. Many current DMFC prototypes use a membrane that allows a concentration of up to 10 percent methanol to water.

Fujitsu’s new membrane allows for a concentration of up to 30 percent, said Scott Ikeda, a company spokesman.

Applied to a prototype fuel cell with 300 milliliters of 30 percent methanol, the new membrane allows the fuel cell to delivers enough power to run a notebook computer for between eight hours and 10 hours. The same fuel cell using the old membrane and 10 percent methanol concentration provided power for one-third the time, said Ikeda.

A similar development was claimed a week ago by PolyFuel Inc. The California-based start-up has already begun supplying samples of its membrane to fuel cell developers and says it will allow concentrations in excess of 50 percent with the result being smaller, lighter and cheaper fuel cells.

By detailing its development work on the new membrane, Fujitsu has also confirmed that it too is working on fuel cell technology. Several other major Japanese electronics companies, including NEC Corp., Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd., are also developing fuel cells for use in portable electronics applications.

Fujitsu said it has no firm commercialization plan for the technology at present although some of the other companies do. The most advanced appears to be NEC, which has already shown a prototype and promised a fuel cell for use with notebook computers will be available this year.