Voller Fuel Cell Battery Charger
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 07. 6.06
We remember when the first cel phones came out, and they were either big Motorola bricks or you carried them in a bag. These days you can lose your iPod or celphone anywhere, but you still have to plug in for recharging. We suspect that the 20 pound briefcase-sized Voller Automatic Battery Charger is but the first of many devices that will solve this problem- it is a hydrogen powered Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell. It has USB, cigarette lighter and mains sockets, and can pump out 65 AC watts continously and can run an iPod for a week on a cylinder of hydrogen. Rock on! ::Engadget
UPDATE: we are going to lie down and let Warren ride over us with his bicycle three times in punishment for not noting that he wrote about the Voller at the Photoshop phase over a year ago.
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I guess the elephant in the room is -- as always -- where do you get the hydrogen from?
The energy for processing, compressing, and transporting of a tank of hydrogen has to come from somewhere. Even if it comes from renewable sources, why not just use that renewable energy directly instead of chasing hydrogen?
"Even if it comes from renewable sources, why not just use that renewable energy directly instead of chasing hydrogen?'
Ummn... can you say 'storage'? I knew you could...
because hydrogen has a greater power density than batteries
"because hydrogen has a greater power density than batteries"
Um, i'll put money on 20 pounds of Li-Ion putting out more than 65W of power for a week.
I have friends at ballard power and have talked to those who know what's going on. Fuel cells suck, and will continue to suck, unless someone makes some magical scientific breakthru. 65W is not a lot of power.
Fuel cells remain the near future pipe dream, just like the Ford Nucleon, the atomic car. Technically feasible, not practical.
Get a few solar panels, a wind generator and a few small Li-Ion batteries. You'll be further ahead in the end.