James Delahunty
4 Mar 2005 9:28
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has said it has dropped plans to develop mobile phones with fuel cells at least for a few years. The company has said the sector is not yet mature. Nokia's Matti Naskali said the firm had not abandoned the technology, saying: "Fuel-cell technology is promising and Nokia continues to follow it closely." A fuel cell is refilled like a lighter, instead of re-charged and would deliver more standby time increased power for resource hogging applications such as video.
Tero Ojanpera, head of Nokia's research centre, demonstrated a Nokia mobile phone running on methanol in 2004. The fuel cell combined the methanol with air to produce power. The prediction then was that it would take only about two years to see fuel cells in mobile phones. Although now several issues with the technology has dented the firms hopes. Methanol is in fact flammable so current air transportation rules prohibit its carrying on an aircraft without special packaging.
Motorola, Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC and Hitachi are also researching fuel cells for mobile phones and some portable computers. Most people would laugh at this idea before thinking about the possible benefits of it. Imagine a Nokia phone with a battery and fuel cell. You can recharge the battery at home but what if you are somewhere where you can't recharge? Simply "re-fill" your phone and you are back up to full power again.
Source:
BBC News