Some quick background: DMFCs produce electricity from a reaction of methanol, water and air — the only by products are a small amount of water vapour and carbon dioxide. You refill the fuel cell with a few squirts of methanol, and presto, you’re able to charge gadgets without a wall socket.

The idea has been in development for 10 years, and Toshiba says that they’re “seriously considering and researching the next model to [be available for the] worldwide market”.

IDGNS tested the new Dynario charger on gear like the PSP and iPod, and say it pretty much does its job flawlessly — though it won’t support every device you connect to its USB socket, including the iPhone. Toshiba has a list, and says about four out of five gadgets should work.

The ¥29,800 (roughly $353) charger is about the size of a PSP and has a brushed metal finish. It has a small battery to “kick start” the power generation, which charges itself in operation.

Refill bottles/cartridges (50mL) come in packs of five for ¥3150 (about $37), so clearly, this isn’t cost-effective yet. IDGNS says each methanol bottle is good for about 3.5 refills, and each refill charges a mobile phone twice.

And while the charger itself is cleared for airline travel, the methanol bottles aren’t. Toshiba hopes to sell them at airports for quick charges before or after flights. So travel aside, maybe the technology also has more potential in emergency kits for use in blackouts and natural disasters. Time will tell. [PC World]

The first 3000 run will cost ¥29800 ($353), and you get five cartridges for ¥3150 ($37), which makes it cost ineffective if you’re talking about practical charging. But if you really need power on the go and you don’t have time to charge up traditionally, this is the future — so long as you’re part of the first 3000 that they’ll test this out on before going on a wider release. [Toshiba Japan via Engadget]

DMFCs produce electricity from a reaction of methanol, water and air — the only by-products are a small amount of water vapour and carbon dioxide. Japanese wireless carrier, KDDI, has combined the fuel cell with a Lithium Ion battery to better handle the phone’s spikes in power demand.

This combination gives the prototype phone about 320 hours of power. That’s around three days longer than an equivalent handset. And instead of taking an hour or so to recharge, a few squirts of methanol only takes seconds. Right now the prototype is thicker than we demand of today’s phones, but the two companies hope the technology will eventually make it into portable gadgets like phones and media players.

Of course, Toshiba promised to start selling a DMFC battery charger by September, but there’s still no sign of that. Good to see they’re making inroads, though. It’s pretty interesting tech. [PC World and DVICE]

The Toshiba K01 is a 4.1-inch capacitive touchscreen QWERTY slider. It features a 1GHz processor, 3.2MP camera and WM 6.5. The K02 is a clamshell version of the chipset, but it features a 3.5-inch touchscreen with QWERTY on the inside and a 10-button pad with a secondary LCD on the outside.

Toshiba’s most exciting plan, however, is the HTC Advantage-like L01. Featuring a 7-inch screen and wireless QWERTY. It would make a heck of a netbook…if the platform weren’t built on Windows Mobile 6.5. Engadget points out that when they spotted an L01 prototype earlier in the year, it was loaded with a fuel cell. Interesting…

All devices are planned to come out near the end of 2009 in some market or other. [Techblog via Engadget]

Apart from the weird look, the home theatre speaker is particularly interesting as it can run for months without needing a recharge.

I’m not so sure about the indoor fuel charger, however. Would it be cheaper than just connecting your devices to your computer or power plug? []

This new cell utilises only four components—a water reservoir and a chamber containing metal hydride separated by a thin membrane with an assembly of electrodes that conduct electricity underneath. Because of the small size of the cell, the team was able to eliminate the pump, pressure sensor, and controlling electronics that create such a power drain in typical fuel cells.

The first designs of the cell were capable of generating 0.7 volts and a current of 0.1 milliamps for 30 hours—but they claim that new versions can deliver 1 milliamp at a similar voltage. [New Scientist via Cleantech via DVICE]

Representative Massa made the 480km NY to DC trip in a car that has a maximum range of 320km. How? By enlisting the help of two SUVs to tow two fuel cell cars while not in use.

Massa drove one fuel cell car while a hybrid SUV [Chevy Tahoe] towing an additional SUV followed along. Once he got half way, he switched to new fuel cell car [which I assume was towed to the half way point sometime earlier so that it would be waiting for the environmentally-conscious congressman]. The empty fuel cell was then towed back by the first SUV. As he continued on his journey, the second SUV followed. Once Massa arrived in DC, the second SUV then towed the second fuel cell car back to NY.

So basically, one SUV traveled 480km and one SUV traveled 960km for a total of 1600km on a 480km trip. That’s not even counting the mileage on the fuel cell car. Nice work there Captain Planet. [Famous DC via Boing Boing]

After all, the idea of carrying around in your bag a bunch of liquid methanol cartridges doesn’t feel like a very good idea to me. On the other side, one single cartridge will give you 25 watt-hours of power, which is not too shabby. Not at all: According to Mobion, on single cartridge will be able to charge your average mobile phone ten times. It would also allow you to play 10,000 songs or 100 hours of video in an iPod, or take 6,000 pictures on a high end DSLR camera.

Definitely, we want.

Albany, N.Y., December 10, 2008 — MTI MicroFuel Cells (”MTI Micro”), the developer of the award-winning Mobion® off-the-grid portable power solutions and a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology, Incorporated (”MTI”) (NASDAQ: MKTY) unveiled today a new product intent external power-pack prototype capable of providing up to 25 hours of on-the-go power with each cartridge. This compact and light weight fuel cell charger comes with a removable cartridge that can be swapped for a new one when depleted. Each additional cartridge gives consumers another 25 Watt-hours of power. With the Mobion® charger, for the first time, consumers can envision a world where power is instantly available where ever they are, when ever they need it.

Mobion® charger with removable cartridge delivers 25 hours of power to multiple devices on-the-go.

The new Mobion® self-sufficient power pack includes a USB interface, allowing the prototype to also be used as an independent energy source for a variety of purposes, including for recharging mobile phones, digital cameras, portable media players and other handheld electronic devices on the go.

With the amount of power from one small cartridge, the charger is designed to fully charge an average cell phone battery over 10 times; for an average user, this could power a cell phone for approximately one month, play 10,000 thousand songs or watch over 100 hours of video on their popular MP3 player, or take over 6000 pictures on a high end professional digital camera. In addition, the charger is designed with smooth edges for an easy grip comfortably fitting in the palm of one´s hand, and has interactive LED lights and easy-to-swap cartridges for intuitive use.

“Our Mobion® product strategy is in line with what consumers on-the-go need. On average, in the U.S., mobile professionals carry 3.4 portable electronic devices with them, and are now buying a universal charger to conveniently recharge all their device batteries.” said Peng Lim, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MTI. “However, these conventional chargers still need to plug into an electrical outlet to recharge once the energy is used. Our Mobion® charger allows consumers to charge their devices anytime, anywhere by eliminating the need to plug their devices or Mobion charger into a wall outlet and wait for a recharge — our Mobion® charger generate electric power on the go and provides true mobility.”

At the core of MTI Micro´s compact charger prototype is its proprietary third generation Mobion® Chip, a design architecture that embodies a reduction in the size, complexity, and cost of fuel cell construction. These changes drive improvements in reliability, manufacturability and low cost products. The Chip is based on 100% methanol fuel, passive, direct methanol fuel cell technology, and integrates a power module with fluid conditioning that allows the system to run in a wide environmental range including temperatures from 0oC to 40oC at any humidity level — an industry standard and a requirement of many OEMs who want to integrate fuel cells into their products. In laboratory testing, this third generation Mobion® Chip demonstrated power of over 62 mW/cm2 while producing more than 1800 Watt Hours Per Kilogram (Wh/kg) of energy from the direct methanol fuel feed.

“These chargers have been built using processes developed to increase throughput efficiency, intensify our testing, and increase reliability and consistency among units”, said Jim Prueitt, Vice President of Engineering and Operations. “We are committed to ensure a process that delivers the engineering and manufacturing rigor necessary to make consistent, reliable products.”

MTI Micro has plans to launch a product by the end of 2009 and pursue the consumer market with target applications which include hand-held communication, and other power-hungry portable electronic devices that can benefit from Mobion® extended run-time, cord-free rechargeable power packs with continuous access to power anytime, anywhere.

[MTI via Cnet]

The new kit—because it may look like a race car but let’s be honest, it’s a science edu-toy—still comes with the solar panel and hydrogen station so that you can use the sun’s rays to convert H2O to H2 and O2. But the car itself now has glowing LEDs, responds to an IR remote, and runs longer and faster with the same amount of fuel. Taking a cue from auto makers and gas companies who release literally green advertisements to convince the public they aren’t part of the problem, Horizon decided to change the car’s translucent tint from blue to, yes, green. The difference, of course, is that Horizon definitely isn’t part of the problem. Only time will tell, however, if they are part of the solution. Meantime, here’s a fun Christmas gift for anyone that still has $US120 to spend on progress! [Horizon via Gizmag]