The Micro-Fuel Cell®Power Supply is a simple, high energy per unit mass fuel cell electrical power system for cellular phones, portable computers and portable electrical devices. The micro-fuel cell utilizes vacuum thin film deposition techniques to coat pattern etched-nuclear-particle-track plastic membranes. The process forms catalytically active surface hydrogen/oxygen electrodes on either side of a single structured proton-exchange-membrane electrolyte. A series stack of cells is built onto a single structured membrane by geometrically engineering the cells on the membrane to allow through-membrane contacts, through-cell water control, thin film electrodes, and electrode breaks. These production techniques are well suited to roll-to-roll production processes and minimize the use of expensive catalysts. To improve reliability, an integrated system of fault correction is used to ensure the operation of the cell stack if there is cell damage. The fuel cells will be directly fueled with liquid hydrocarbon fuels such as methanol and ethanol, by incorporating new direct conversion catalysts. The Micro-Fuel Cell® provides portable electronics with an energy source that is smaller, lighter, simpler, cleaner, and less expensive.
You might want to read a Technology Summary for more details on the fuel cells and the Company Background for a short history of Energy Related Devices.
About the speaker:
Robert Hockaday is the principal investigator and innovator behind ERD. He was a member of the Los Alamos National Laboratory staff from 1984 to 1994, when he took an Entrepreneurial Leave of Absence to pursue full-time his life-long-dream – technologies for Energy Related Devices. During his tenure at Los Alamos, Mr. Hockaday was the principal investigator of projects involving the development, calibration and analysis of high-speed x-ray diagnostic experiments on seven underground nuclear tests. He also conducted plasma experiments at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and Triniti Laboratory in Troisk, Russia.
Contact information:
Robert Hockaday
energyrd@aol.com