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Carmakers learned years ago it's not easy to make a practical hydrogen fuel cell. Yet hydrogen fuel cells do work, and they're greener than batteries. So how about using a mini hydrogen fuel cell to recharge something small—like your mobile phone battery?
That's the idea behind SiGNa Chemistry's PowerTrekk, demo'd at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The device is filled with a powdery substance known as sodium silicide that produces hydrogen gas in the presence of water. It has the same recharge power as six AA batteries, minus the heavy metals and toxic chemicals.
The downside? PowerTrekk will cost about $200 when it debuts in the U.S. in May.
A cheaper option, also on display at CES, might be the nVolt by startup company nVolutions. Due out by the end of the year and expected to cost about $50, nVolt has a circular plate that attaches to the back of any mobile phone. Once attached, put your phone on a flat surface and spin it. nVolt uses kinetic energy generated by the rotations to do the re-charging. There's nothing greener than a little elbow grease.
—Larry Greenemeier
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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6 Comments
Add CommentWhy don't they just put solar panels on cell phones like they do calculators? While your cell phone is laying on the desk or the car dock beside you, it is charging.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn e-ink cell phone would be fine for me as a way of extending time between charges.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere again- my flip phone can typically go a week or two between charges (three or more weeks if I don't use it much).
For those of you over-paid folk with smart phones e-ink may not be the ticket for browsing the web and playing games.
For the common Joe who doesn't have the hundreds to spend annually for web-on-the-go e-ink is more than acceptable for a cell phone.
And why does nobody make a clockwork wind-up mini generator?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy grandfather father came from Ulm Germaney and grandpa had hundreds of clocks in his house from Ulm most powered by weights that looked like pine cones the clock was wound by grabing the pine cones & pulling them up & down a few times & it was good to go for eight days the weight pulled downward spinning a wheel or moving a pendulum wind it up before you go to sleep and the phone is your clock & is charged as you sleep without electric or fuel one of the little generaters that rode on your bike wheels as a kid could do the trick remember we have better magnates now days, one of the main reasons pepole stopped using springs was it was hard to make good springs back then
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of those old bicycle generators hooked to a prop would make a good wind generator Big enough to charge a cell phone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSmart phones cost hundreds where you are? If you spend more than $100 for an Android phone, new, you aren't trying very hard.
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