Toshiba launches first domestic fuel-cell charger
Dynario ready to top up phone, media player batteries
Toshiba has launched its first direct methanol fuel-cell (DMFC) product: Dynario, an external power source for “mobile digital consumer products”.
Toshiba's Dynario makes power from highly-concentrated methanol
Once filled with an injection of methanol solution, Dynario is able to generate electricity that can be transferred to, say, a mobile phone or MP3 player over a USB connection.
Each fuel cartridge holds 50ml of “highly-concentrated methanol”, yet Toshiba claimed this enables Dynario to generate enough power to charge two mobile phones.
Dynario measures 150 x 21 x 74mm, weighs 280g when empty and has a 14ml fuel tank capacity – meaning that each fuel cartridge will give you at least three full refills.
Squeezy does it
An initial batch of 3000 Dynario units will be available in Japan from today, priced at ¥28,900 (£191/$316/€211) each. If the DMFC gadget proves successful with power-hungry punters then a wider roll-out could follow. ®
COMMENTS
So...
So what are the chances of scaling this up so we can run a car off similar fuel cells?
I mean it wouldn't take too much to change the infrastructure from petrol to methanol, would it?
@miknik - You Have to Laugh...
Mate - even as a tech-mad young lad - I DID berate the TV when it first came out as a 12" 405-line B&W single channel £100 (1000s in today's money) eyesore! I let the tech-mad nerds queue for them, and didn't buy one for 2 decades until I had multi-channels and affordable prices. I still don't have HD flat-screen, and won't be buying until I see something on those screens worth watching. 'Concept models' belong in labs, not our homes.
To be fair, it's probably earlier buyers who establish markets, eventually bring down prices. In which case, please be my guest...
£200 for a battery charger?
£200 for a battery charger? no thanks.
Any real purpose?
>>Toshiba claimed this enables Dynario to generate enough power to charge two mobile phones.
At 150x21x74mm, this thing is about 20 times the volume of a BL-5C (generic Nokia battery used across a fair portion of their phones) and at £191 is almost 50 times the price (£4 for a genuine nokia battery from a lot of outlets), AND needs the bulk + cost of fuel on top of it.
So, i'm kind of curious as to what the benefit of this product is if it's being marketed as an emergency phone charger. Instead of having this product you could simply carry 20 backup batteries for 20 "recharges" instead of 2, and save £110 in the process!
Guess it's okay if you have some form of crippled device that doesn't include a user-swappable battery (now where would we find one of those?), but hell, there're plenty of battery-based emergency phone chargers with charging adaptors for all major phones, that achieve far better energy density than this and cost far far less.
The future of fuel cells? Great! Right now? Hard to see why this thing ever made it past a concept model.
You have to laugh...
at everyone moaning about this. Bet they would be the sort of people who berated the TV when it first came out for being bulky and only in black and white.
