Revealed: The First Hydrogen-Powered Battery That Will Charge Your Apple iPhone for a week

[nationalize the fed]

UK Telegraph | Christopher Williams | 22 Aug 2015

A British technology company has claimed a major smartphone breakthrough by developing an iPhone that can go a week without recharging, running instead off a built-in hydrogen fuel cell.

Intelligent Energy has made a working iPhone 6 prototype containing both a rechargeable battery and its own patented technology, which creates electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen, producing only small amounts of water and heat as waste.


Intelligent Energy's miniaturised fuel cell fits inside the existing iPhone 6 chassis alongside the battery Photo: iFixit

The company is believed to be working closely with Apple. In what it claims is a world first, it has incorporated a fuel cell system into the current iPhone 6 without any alteration to the size or shape of the device. The only cosmetic difference compared with other handsets are rear vents so an imperceptible amount of water vapour can escape.

Executives believe that for the price of a latte, a market worth as much as £300bn a year could open up.

Henri Winand, chief executive of Intelligent Energy, who refused to comment on rumours of Apple involvement, said: “To our knowledge this has never been done before...snip
MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11818151/Revealed-the-first-hydrogen-powered-battery-that-will-charge-your-Apple-iPhone-for-a-week.html

Related:British hydrogen fuel cell pioneer develops cars and iPhones of the future
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11818169/British-hydrogen-fuel-cell-pioneer-develops-cars-and-iPhones-of-the-future.html

Upp™ now available at Apple Stores across the UK
Live life unplugged with a portable hydrogen fuel cell
http://www.intelligent-energy.com/news-and-events/company-news/2014/11/19/upp-now-available-at-apple-stores-across-the-uk/


Intelligent Energy Hydrogen Fuel Cell Taxi in London
http://www.intelligent-energy.com

Hydrogen is The Next Big Thing!

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. Great technology

[mackdaddy]

2. I think the ethanol fuel cells have a good shot at this application too.

Ethanol fuel cells are very similar to the pure hydrogen powered fuel cells in construction, but can convert ethanol (grain alcohol) and oxygen directly into electricity.

These have been prototyped for years, but I do not know of any commercial units in larger production. I had my students use ethanol fuel cell kits in their labs when I taught fuel cells a couple of years ago. One of my students brought in an eyedropper bottle of moonshine and it worked well in the cells. (I labeled the bottle amateur produced ethanol so I would not have to explain why we had moonshine in class).

These ethanol cells work best with clear products like vodka or gin, or everclear, but can work with most straight booze. A few drops of alcohol ran the cells for a couple of hours.

I think these have an advantage in that you do not have to buy special canisters of hydrogen, but those have their place too in portable power.

Recent prototype ethanol fuel cell: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/181964-alcohol-powered-micro-fuel-cell-could-one-day-power-your-smartphone