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In the boardroom at Bloom Energy, a single picture hangs on the wall: a satellite image of the world at night. Clusters of bright lights mark the industrial centers, and thin white lines trace connecting passageways such as the U.S. Interstate System and the Trans-Siberian Railroad. In between, huge swaths lie in shadow. Standing almost reverently before the image, K. R. Sridhar, the CEO of Bloom, points to the dark areas—places where electricity isn’t accessible or reliable. “This is my motivation for everything,� he says. To improve the lot of the more than 2 billion people living in those dark...

CANTON — Two area companies — one already here and another being lured with incentives — received tax breaks from the state Department of Development on Monday. Job Creation Tax credits were approved for Medline Industries and Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems by the state Tax Credit Authority. If it locates here, Medline would receive a 40 percent, 5-year tax credit for the creation of $873,600 in payroll. As part of the tax-credit agreement, Medline has to maintain operations in Canton for at least eight years. Rolls-Royce will receive a 60 percent, 10-year tax credit for creating $3.74 million in additional...

Bacteria can be used to turn dirty salt water into electricity and drinkable water, according to new research from scientists at Penn State University and Tsinghua University. The research presents a new spin on microbial fuel cells, which have been used in the past to produce electricity or store it as hydrogen or methane gas.

Companies, States Vie for $2.4 Billion in Funding Aimed at Turning U.S. Into Top Maker of Fuel Cells for Electric Cars The Obama administration has set off a gold rush to power new environmentally friendly cars. In one of the government's biggest efforts at shaping industrial policy, the Energy Department has been soliciting applications for $2.4 billion in funding aimed at turning the U.S. into a battery-manufacturing powerhouse. At the deadline last week, the department said it had received 165 applications. Companies vying for the federal money include General Motors Corp., Dow Chemical Co., Johnson Controls Inc. and A123 Systems,...

Unlike blinged-out rap stars dripping with platinum chains, fuel cell designers try to scrimp on the precious metal. Researchers have now come up with a new way to make do with less platinum and get even better performance from fuel cells. The finding, which appears online May 14 in Science, may provide a much-needed price chop for clean, efficient fuel cell technology. Fuel cells generate energy through chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen, emitting only water as waste. But the high cost of the materials needed to make these reactions happen — in particular, platinum — has prevented fuel cell...

Laptop, cell phone and iPod owners, tired of having their devices run out of charge after a few hours, have been patiently waiting for the next portable power source to arrive. Tiny fuel cells, powered by combustible liquids or gasses, have long been touted as the eventual solution. Potentially, they could power a laptop for days between refills. But fuel cells have perennially remained a year or two away from reaching the market as companies have worked on making them small, cheap and long-lasting while making sure they don’t overheat. The U.S. government removed a key roadblock this year when...

In 2003 President Bush announced a $1.2 billion initiative to make fuel cells commercially viable over a 16-year period. Five years later, a new report issued by the National Research Council says that fuel cells are still at least 15 years away from being commercially feasible. The release says that despite “impressive progress toward commercialization,” some $200 billion is needed over the next decade and half — $55 billion from the government and $145 billion from the private sector. The report says that in the short term, fuel efficiency and biofuel research would be a more cost-effective way to reduce...

New studies with different fuel cell catalysts show promising results As the automotive industry is betting that hydrogen can become the fuel of the future, technology is taking steps to bring that hope closer to reality. Three papers being published by the journal Science promise to fill some of the most significant gaps in what could someday be an environmentally friendly cycle of hydrogen production and consumption. --snip-- Platinum is also commonly used on the consumption side, in the fuel cells that turn hydrogen back into water and produce electric currents. In Science‘s August 1 issue, researchers at Monash University...

Washington, Aug 1 : Researchers at the MIT have found a new way to store solar power, a major breakthrough in the search to use the sun and serve the Earth's energy needs in a clean and sustainable way. Every hour, the sun pours down enough radiation to serve the Earth's energy needs for a year. The trouble is to store that energy cheaply and use it whenever needed. Daniel Nocera and Matthew Kanan of the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a process that will use the sun's energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later,...

Who wouldn’t like the idea of a fuel cell car running on clean, pure hydrogen, the universe’s most plentiful element? Its byproduct is sparkling, drinkable water, with none of that pesky pollution spewing out the tailpipe. And then if there's any energy left over when you're done driving, why, you could use that car's fuel cell to power your house! We can get rid of gasoline! And fuel cells, hey, they use those in spacecraft, don't they? This is some modern stuff, and at first glance, hydrogen appears to be a viable solution to all our energy problems. Well,...

It has long been the Holy Grail of environmental scientists, but researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are confident they have found an inexpensive way of producing hydrogen from water, paving the way for the widespread adoption of zero carbon fuel cells capable of powering buildings and cars. The technique is similar to the way photosynthesis works in plants and is based on a new catalyst that can split water at room temperature to create hydrogen and oxygen. The catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode that is placed into water. When electricity runs through the...

Nisshinbo Industries Inc. (TSE:3105) has worked with the Tokyo Institute of Technology to develop the technology to use carbon instead of expensive platinum as the electrode catalyst for fuel cells. The company hopes to have a practical version of the new catalyst ready in fiscal 2009, and will start by commercializing a product for the electrodes of residential fuel cells. Later, it will develop and commercialize a version for automotive fuel cells.

Can Hydrogen Cars Reduce America's Oil Dependence? By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross July 8, 2008 In early June, Honda introduced its latest hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle, the FCX Clarity, to great fanfare. The Clarity’s predecessor was the FCX, which became the first U.S. government-approved fuel cell vehicle in 2002. The Clarity offers a number of advances over the FCX, including a 30% increase in range. The vehicle’s reception is reflected in such publications as Consumer Affairs, which noted that the car seems attractive at a time of high oil prices and ecological awareness: “Here is a vehicle that doesn’t require oil to...

A British company is claiming the hydrogen age could be a little closer after it unveiled a major innovation. The new hydrogen refuelling cell in action It has created a home filling station which would solve one of the biggest problems surrounding hydrogen powered cars It claims to have dramatically cut the cost of creating hydrogen and has developed a device the size of a fridge freezer which can fit in your garage and create its own supply of hydrogen. At the moment there are only three hydrogen filling stations in Britain and the cost of fully equiping the country...

Some cost and durability figures for operating hydrogen fuel-cell powered buses have leaked out, and from them it appears the best thing that can be said is it’s a good thing it’s a demonstration program. To fulfill a California Air Resources Board requirement that operators of large bus fleets participate in a Zero-Emission Bus demonstration program, in 2005 the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority purchased three buses powered by early versions of fuel cells developed by Ballard Power Systems Inc. of Vancouver, Canada. Green Car Journal reports a memo directed to the Santa Clara VTA’s board of directors indicated operating...

EAST AMWELL, N.J.—Mike Strizki has not paid an electric, oil or gas bill—nor has he spent a nickel to fill up his Mercury Sable—in nearly two years. Instead, the 51-year-old civil engineer makes all the fuel he needs using a system he built in the capacious garage of his home, which employs photovoltaic (PV) panels to turn sunlight into electricity that is harnessed in turn to extract hydrogen from tap water. Although the device cost $500,000 to construct, and it is unlikely it will ever pay off financially (even with today's skyrocketing oil and gas prices), the civil engineer says...

UTC Power, a United Technologies Corp. company, announced that the New York Power Authority (NYPA) selected the company to supply 12 fuel cells totaling 4.8 megawatts of power for the Freedom Tower and three other new towers under construction at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. Delivery of the PureCell (R) Model 400 fuel cell systems will begin in January of 2009. The systems will together constitute one of the largest fuel cell installations in the world. The Freedom Tower will be owned by the Port Authority of New York, and Towers 2, 3 and 4 will be...

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) - A skyscraper planned for the site of the World Trade Center will use an alternative energy source to supply some of the power at the massive complex. UTC Power, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., will supply 12 fuel cells totaling 4.8 megawatts for the Freedom Tower and three other buildings at the lower Manhattan site. It's among the largest fuel cell installations in the world, according to UTC Power and the New York Power Authority. The amount of megawatts is equivalent to the power used by up to 4,800 homes, said Michael Saltzman, spokesman...

SHARP HAS unveiled a high density, 0.3Wcc direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), which boasts the highest level of power density yet achieved. The diminutive cell volume, whose tiny frame measures 50 x 30 mm, has a longer lifespan than commonly used lithium ion batteries and is well matched for notebooks, mobile equipment and even electronic dictionaries. Sharp showed off the device at the 15th Fuel Cell Symposium in Tokyo. At 0.3Wcc the cell's power density is about seven times more than Sharp’s previous attempt. Fuel cells use energy produced by the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, and are claimed...

I have a question for people smarter than me. I was watching a comercial on TV and the guy was bragging that the fuel cell car put out water vapor for exhaust. I thought water vapor was THE WORST green house gas on the planet. I definately want to find an alternative to oil, and see the advantage of using hydrogen, but what if we end up with an atmosphere of a steamy jungle?

Fuel cells plumb new depths Spanish plan fuel cell powered submarine James Murray, BusinessGreen, 06 Dec 2007 They have already been used in space and now low-carbon fuel cells are set to break another barrier after UTC Power announced it has inked a deal to provide a new 300KW fuel cell for use in the Spanish Navy's S-80 submarine. The company said the deal with Spanish shipbuilder Navantia represented one of the largest deals in its history and would see it develop a new proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell for the submarine. "One of the places that fuel cells...

DANBURY, Conn., Aug. 30, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqGM:FCEL - News), a leading manufacturer of ultra-clean power plants using a variety of fuels for commercial, industrial and utility customers, today announced that Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - News) will purchase a DFC300MA(tm) fuel cell for its Oakville, Ontario, facility to reduce paint solvent emanating from automotive painting operations by turning fumes from those compounds into 300 kilowatts (kW) of green electricity. The Direct FuelCell(r) (DFC(r)) unit can transform into fuel the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that emanate from enamel base paints and clear coat finishes used in...

Jihlavan Airplanes Rapid 200. Jihlavan is one of the project partners. A European research project, led by Turin Polytechnic University, is designing a fuel-cell powered, manned inter-city aircraft. The Environmentally Friendly Inter City Aircraft powered by Fuel Cells (ENFICA-FC) project is receiving €2.9 million (US$3.9 million) in funding from the European Union as part of the aeronautics and space priority of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). The fuel cell system will be installed in selected aircraft, which will be flight and performance tested as a proof-of-concept for future applicability in other inter-city aircraft. The results of the project will be...

The crystal structure of COF-108. Synthesized only from light elements (H,B,C,O) COF-108 is the lowest-density crystal ever produced (0.17 g/cm3). Chemists at UCLA have designed new organic structures for the storage of voluminous amounts of gases for use in alternative energy technologies. The research, published in the journal Science, demonstrates how the design principles of reticular chemistry have been used to create three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks, which are entirely constructed from strong covalent bonds and have high thermal stability, high surface areas and extremely low densities. Reticular chemistry deals with linking molecular building blocks by strong bonds into predetermined structures...

Boeing Prepares Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane for Testing Madrid, Spain [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] In an effort to develop environmentally progressive technologies for aerospace applications, Boeing researchers are preparing to conduct experimental flight tests later this year of a manned airplane powered only by a fuel cell and lightweight batteries. Europe, managing director The systems integration phase of the Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane research project, under way since 2003 at Boeing Research and Technology, Europe (BR&TE), was recently completed. With a wing span of 16.3 meters (53.5 feet), the airplane will be able to cruise at approximately 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles...

Possible Impact for Hydrogen Storage tructure of chromium (III) diphenyl dicarboxylate, one of the new crystalline solids, in its crude form following synthesis (middle), with all traces of solvent removed (on the left), and after absorption of solvent and increase in volume (on the right). Source: G. Férey, CNRS 2007 A team of scientists from France, UK and the European Synhrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) have recently discovered an unprecedented giant and reversible swelling of nanoporous crystalline solids with exceptional properties: huge flexibility and profound selectivity. The team from Institut Lavoisier at Université de Versailles developed metal-organic three-dimensional structures with cages...

Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed a biodegradable bio fuel cell that runs on virtually any sugar source and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single fill than conventional lithium ion batteries. They described their findings at the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Shelley Minter, an electrochemist at Saint Louis University, has been working on bio fuel cells for a number of years using a variety of different fuels, from alcohol to soybean oil. At the 229th national meeting of the ACS in 2005, she reported on fructose-based bioanodes...

NEW YORK — Shares of FuelCell Energy Inc. surged Tuesday after the company announced a lucrative deal to supply fuel cell power products to Connecticut. The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund selected Danbury, Conn.-based FuelCell for six power projects that would total about 68 megawatts, the company said Tuesday. The deal would be valued at $200 million if all the projects are approved, FuelCell said. RBC Capital Markets analyst Stuart Bush had expected FuelCell to win just 10 megawatts' worth of projects. The company's dominance in the state's contract decision "bodes well for continued FuelCell traction in the marketplace" versus Connecticut-based...

EAST AMWELL, N.J. - Mike Strizki lives in the nation's first solar-hydrogen house. The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days. Mr. Strizki's monthly utility bill is zero – he's off the power grid – and his system creates no carbon-dioxide emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates.

Exceed DOE Conductivity Targets for Automotive Applications Stack with Bac2 Electrophen plates. Bac2 Conductive Composites, a UK-based start-up fuel-cell materials company, has announced substantial conductivity improvements for its patented ElectroPhen conductive polymer. Independent tests have shown that the latest version of the thermoset material, which uses a new curing agent, demonstrates an improvement in in-plane electrical conductivity to nearly 500 siemens per centimeter. The material now exceeds the US Department of Energy conductivity target of 200 siemens per centimeter for such materials used to make bipolar plates for fuel cell applications. The target primarily relates to fuel cells for use...

WASHINGTON - Scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs will be able to vie for millions of dollars in prizes, including a grand prize potentially worth $50 million, under House-passed legislation to encourage research into hydrogen as an alternative fuel. Legislation creating the “H Prize,” modeled after the privately funded Ansari X Prize that resulted last year in the first privately developed manned rocket to reach space twice, passed the House Wednesday on a 416-6 vote. A companion bill is to be introduced in the Senate this week.

The green dots in this Low Energy Electron Diffraction pattern for a single crystal of Pt3Ni(111) reveal a tightly packed arrangement of surface atoms that wards off platinum-grabbing hydroxide ions and boosts catalytic performance. Researchers with the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) have identified a new variation of a familiar platinum-nickel alloy that is the most active oxygen-reducing catalyst ever reported. The team found a Pt3Ni(111) material that is 10-fold more active for the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR) than the corresponding Pt(111) surface and 90-fold more active than the current state-of-the-art...

BERKELEY, Calif., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've brought development of hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles closer by identifying a new variation of a platinum-nickel alloy. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Argonne National Laboratory say the variation is the most active oxygen-reducing catalyst ever reported. The slow rate of oxygen-reduction catalysis on the cathode -- a fuel cell's positively charged electrode -- has been a primary factor hindering development of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for use in vehicles powered by hydrogen. "The existing limitations facing (such) fuel cell technology...

Big hurdles include the cost: millions per car ---- WASHINGTON - Ford Motor Co. is joining the list of automakers working on a plug-in hybrid — with a twist. It combines the convenience of plugging in your car with a zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell. Ford today is to display what it calls the world's first drivable fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle with plug-in capability. Called the Flexible Series Hybrid Edge, it represents the latest offering from automakers hoping to stake a claim to the next generation of highly efficient alternative automobiles. Gerhard Schmidt, Ford's vice president of research and advanced...

A simplified rendering of the structure of the MOF with 6.9 wt % hydrogen uptake. Details in paper referenced at end of article at site. Chemical and Engineering News highlights three papers published in its sister publication, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, that report the first definitive evidence for hydrogen binding to open metal coordination sites in nanoporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Developing hydrogen storage systems of sufficient density for vehicles is proving to be a difficult problem. Direct binding, however, allows the hydrogen molecules to pack together more closely and may provide a major boost in storage capacity...

Biowaste to ethanol could soon power cars. Converting a vehicle to run primarily on ethanol costs just a couple of hundred dollars. But ethanol won't make much of a dent in gas use as long as the source of ethanol in the United States remains corn grain, which requires a lot of energy and land in order to grow. A much better alternative is cellulosic materials such as wood chips and switchgrass, which are both cheap to grow and require fewer natural resources. (See "Biomass: Hope and Hype.") In an effort to reduce the processing costs of these materials, researchers...

HyPower Fuel has equipped a Volkswagen GTi with an H2 Reactor (H2R) hydrogen system that it claims can produce sufficient hydrogen on-board, on-demand to power the vehicle using only water. Company management is quick to point out that these are preliminary laboratory results using prototype H2R units and will require considerable improvements before any practical transportation application can become a reality. The company plans to host a number of live demonstrations in early 2007 with independent experts in attendance to monitor and verify resulting data. HyPower believes that its H2 Reactor’s electrolysis process is the most efficient to date. Currently...

In a recent study, fuel cell expert Ulf Bossel explains that a hydrogen economy is a wasteful economy. The large amount of energy required to isolate hydrogen from natural compounds (water, natural gas, biomass), package the light gas by compression or liquefaction, transfer the energy carrier to the user, plus the energy lost when it is converted to useful electricity with fuel cells, leaves around 25% for practical use — an unacceptable value to run an economy in a sustainable future. Only niche applications like submarines and spacecraft might use hydrogen. “More energy is needed to isolate hydrogen from natural...

Attaching titanium atoms (blue) to the ends of an ethylene molecule (yellow-green) will result in a capsule-shaped complex that absorbs 10 hydrogen molecules (red). Results of modeling studies by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Turkey’s Bilkent University indicate that attaching titanium atoms to the ends of an ethylene molecule will result in a capsule-shaped complex that absorbs 10 hydrogen molecules. The results open a new avenue in the pursuit of materials that will enable efficient solid-state storage of hydrogen. Ethylene is the inexpensive building block of the most common plastic. The team’s calculations show that...

The Alaska Energy Technology Development Laboratory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks recently announced a successful field test of a prototype propane fuel cell. The cell, manufactured by Massachusetts-based Acumentrics and installed at the Kenai Fjords National Park’s Exit Glacier Nature Center near Seward, ran for more than 1,100 hours straight and did so with no measurable degradation in its efficiency. “From a technical point of view, it is an important milestone we have achieved here,” said Dennis Witmer, director of AETDL. “It is one step closer to these kinds of fuel cells becoming devices that can be useful in...

HAGA-GUN, Japan (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co. (7267.T) said on Monday it has developed a new and simple diesel powertrain that is as clean as gasoline-fuelled cars, unveiling plans to mount it on a car for the U.S. market by 2009. Diesel engines, which now power half of Europe's new cars, are slowly gaining traction with fuel-conscious consumers around the world since they typically get 30 percent better mileage than gasoline cars. Their weakness has been the higher exhaust levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx), a greenhouse gas, and carmakers are racing to come up with ways to clear the world's...

UTC Power to Design Fuel Cell for Spanish Submarine Wednesday July 19, 8:49 am ET SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- UTC Power, a United Technologies (NYSE: UTX - News) company, today announced that its UTC Fuel Cells unit will design and develop a 300 kW proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell power module for the Spanish shipbuilder NAVANTIA, S.A. for use in the Spanish Navy's S-80 submarine. The 300 kW PEM fuel cell will be designed to operate on reformed ethanol and pure oxygen. The Spanish Navy will install the new fuel cell power modules on its S-80...

The discovery that a wide variety of bacteria can be persuaded to produce wire-like appendages that conduct electricity could prove vital to the development of more efficient biological fuel cells. Bacteria that use sugars and sewage as fuel are being investigated as a pollution-free source of electricity. They feed by plucking electrons from atoms in their fuel and dumping them onto the oxygen or metal atoms in the mixture. The transfer of the electrons creates a current, and connecting the bacteria to an electrode in a microbial fuel cell will generate electricity, although not necessarily very efficiently. A species of...

Three hydrogen-powered buses appeared in streets of Beijing on Tuesday, bringing emission-free public transport to China for the first time. "This marks the first public operation of fuel-cell buses in Beijing, it is the first ever in China, and one of the first in a developing country," said Renaud Meyer, Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program in China. "The hydrogen refueling station will be fully operational this summer." The buses will run 18.2 kilometers from the North Gate of the Summer Palace to the university district at Wudaokou. Thirty-three fuel-cell buses have been released onto the streets...

Sulfur causes costly problems for high-temperature fuel cells. Tufts U. researchers may have found an answer. High-temperature fuel cells promise clean, efficient energy in quantities large enough to power cities. But, so far, they've been too expensive for widespread use. One major problem is the sulfur in fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, which contaminates the hydrogen gas that runs the cells. The sulfur attacks and degrades a part of the fuel cell called the anode, reducing power production -- and eventually shutting down the cell. Now chemical engineers at Tufts University in Medford MA, led by...

Excerpt: Although its future looks bright—the only by-product of a hydrogen fuel cell is water, and experts believe they can one day be used to create electricity to fuel cars—the cost and energy required to create hydrogen has taken it out of the running as a near-term energy alternative to oil. That may be about to change. Researchers at GE’s Global Research lab in Niskayuna, NY, have developed a system that produces hydrogen at a fraction of the cost and could be available commercially in just a few years... (full text at Popular Mechanics url)

One of Germany's crack new fuel-cell-powered submarines has set a world record with a two-week-long dive, the German Navy said Wednesday. The trip by the U212A-class sub with a crew of 27 from Eckernfoerde in Germany to Rota in Spain involved the longest period that any non-nuclear vessel had ever spent under water. The navy did not say what the previous record had been. US and Russian nuclear submarines can stay under water for longer. Germany, which has no nuclear weapons and no nuclear-powered ships, developed the high-tech hybrid-powered submarines to replace diesel-electric vessels that need to surface more often...

Nissan has devoted 10 years to fuel-cell research and that decade of development is packed into its latest FCV X-Trail sport/utility vehicle. Nissan developed and built a fuel stack in-house and its latest unit manages to squeeze the stack’s advanced technology in a smaller and lighter package. The new stack develops 120 hp—35 hp more than the one fitted to the previous 2003 FCV X-Trail. As a result the new model offers better acceleration and response, not to mention higher top speed. The benefits of the fuel-cell packaging improvements extend to the interior, where space is freed for passengers. The...

ST. HELENA, Calif. -- Unable to drive down high oil prices, President Bush is spending Earth Day promoting futuristic hydrogen fuel technology as a way to wean Americans from gas-guzzling vehicles. After a bike ride near his Napa Valley resort Saturday morning, Bush planned to visit the California Fuel Cell Partnership in West Sacramento for a tour and speech on his energy plan. The plan does not include any measures that would reduce gas prices in the short term, the White House acknowledges. But with Republicans worried that the increasing cost to drive could hurt them in the voting booth...

UltraCell demonstrated its UltraCell XX25 micro fuel cell system at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco today. Powered by a reformed methanol fuel cell technology, the UltraCell XX25 is a pre-production unit designed for the military. Beta testing of the XX25 will begin mid-year, and a commercial version, the UltraCell UC25 could be available by the end of this year. The UltraCell UC25 will run a laptop computer for up to two working days on a single methanol fuel cell cartridge and as these lightweight cartridges are also hot-swappable, the UltraCell systems can run indefinitely without any need for...