This lost tribe of cows has never actually been contacted by modern man until this photo.

New fuel cells to power the War on Cows?

25 watts sustained for 72 hours= 1.8 kWh. Not bad from 300 mL of methanol. 300 mL of gasoline would contain only about 3kWh of energy. I don't have numbers, but since methanol is probably less energy dense by volume (since it is already partially oxidized) that must be a really high conversion efficiency. I'd like to see a scaled up version of this in a car. I'd love to be able to use man-made hydrocarbons made with clean electricity...

When can the rest of us outdoor types get our hands on it? And at what price?

Yah, the average soldier does NOT carry 27 lbs of batteries on a 72 hour mission. The average conventional forces soldier carries under two pounds of batteries over 72 hours, and the RTO carries between 12 and 20, satcom radio dependent. An 18E could carry as much as 25lbs, but this all assumes that his buddies who are carrying less than three pounds aren't willing to cross load.

There are many uses for fuel cells in the Army/military. Reducing the battery load of a dismounted soldier is not one of them. Claiming the average weight over 72 hours is 27 lbs constitutes fraud.

@ kzemach: Just to be clear, I'm not the one making up the 27lb figure. In the course of writing this post I have become aware that though the average soldier carries far less than 27lbs normally, the manufacturers still do reference their weight reduction from that.

You do bring up a good point: Perhaps Dupont is wrangling some more money and work from the DOD by touting greater weight reductions than exist in practice and creating a need where there wasn't one previously.

Nonetheless from the standpoint of alternative energy solutions, I hope it's interesting for readers even if the claimed weight reduction for soldiers isn't what the manufacturer claims.

The military has also developed diesel fuel cells for electrical generation, so hopefully that trickles down to civilian uses.

No waiting on hydrogen to make it to your local station.

Their site says 30% efficiency. That's better than the best mass production ICE generators but not the record for fuel cells.

Methanol is a bit less than half the energy density of gasoline by volume but burns much cleaner.

The diesel fuel cells require very high temps for reforming the diesel to free H2. 700oC or so. Not's not the sort of thing you can stick in your pocket. The higher Carbon content is also wasted as heat energy since it doesn't transport electrons (only the Hydrogen does).

Methanol Fuel Cells are as efficient as small scale hydrogen Fuel cells. The problem with methanol fuel cells for transportation is that the molecule is much bulkier than hydrogen and it therefore cannot be reacted as quickly. Methanol Fuel cells therefore are required to be larger and have much more platinum catalyst to get equal power production to hydrogen fuel cells. Methanol is, however, easily transportable, unlike hydrogen.

what's the fuel cell for anyways? powering your camera to take pictures?? what would a soldier need electricity for, much less 72 hours straight?

This thing only provides 25 watts of power, and peaking to 80! I think my hair dryer is 700!

300 mL of Methanol?! R u kidding me? that Might get a thin gal tipsy, but a fat man wouldn't even notice; and to burn it for energy? haha, that might get u too the end of the block.

My tiny little cellphone battery has days of standby and hours of talk, and probably weighs an ounce. 2 lbs for a fuel-cell? Geez, just make a gigantic lithium ion kinda like the size of those 6volts they make for those camp lanterns.