Canon's Fuel Cell May Drive Portable Gear
By Geoff Duncan
October 26, 2005
Canon, Inc., has taken the wraps off prototype rechargeable hydrogen fuel cells, the likes of which may one day power digital cameras, media players, and printers.
At a company event in Tokyo yesterday, Canon Inc. showed off a series of prototype hydrogen fuel cells which, it hopes, may begin replacing batteries in portable electronics gadgets like digital cameras, music players, and digital assistants within three years.
Canon showed three cells, a large-ish form aimed for devices like printers, another sized appropriately for digital still cameras, and a tiny third cell, roughly 1.6 by 1.3 inches (3 cm by 4 cm), aimed at small mobile devices like music players. A cell was shown operating inside an extension battery pack for Canon's EOS Kiss Digital N professional-level digital camera; although the cell currently delivers about half the power of a traditional lithium-ion battery pack, Canon believes the fuel cell will be able to achieve three to five times the power of current battery technologies.
A number of electronics companies have been working on fuel cell technologies as battery replacements for several years. Fuel cells can potentially provide more power for consumer electronics devices relative to batteries of the same size and weight, offer near-instant recharging times, and—depending on the manufacturing process involved—may be more environmentally friendly than traditional batteries, which produce hazardous substances during manufacture and are essentially toxic waste at the end of their usable lives.
Canon's demonstrated fuel cells win even more points on the environmental front: while companies such as Toshiba, Sanyo, and NEC have also been working on fuel cells (and had been expected to have developed fuel cell-driven notebook computers by now), those efforts are based on DMFC technology which derives hydrogen from methanol, producing small amounts of carbon dioxide (itself a greenhouse gas) in the process. Canon's cells obtain hydrogen from a refillable cartridge with no toxic byproducts. Although Canon hasn't yet detailed plans for selling and marketing fuel cells, the company would likely refill or replace the hydrogen cartridges at Canon outlets, although other means of providing consumers with refills would surely be necessary if the devices reach the mass market.