New research from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.ti.frost.com), Power and Battery Systems for Mobile Devices, finds the rapidly rising demand for power motivates fuel cell and battery manufacturers to exploit the developments in nanotechnology and introduces new sources such as microfuel cells and postage stamp-sized ultracapacitors for powering mobile devices.

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Currently, batteries are not one of the preferred energy storage systems for mobile devices and are slowly losing their importance with the growing demand for relatively higher energy output from mobile devices.

"Primary lithium-ion batteries are presently not being used by mobile phone manufacturers as there are several issues such as thermal runaway issues, aging, cost constraints, operating temperature constraints, durability, safety concerns regarding electrolyte leakage, poor conductivity in Li ion polymer batteries and anode passivation," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Viswanathan Krishnan. "Even nickel-based batteries are being restrained by memory effect, environmental issues, formation of dendrites, cost constraints, reverse charging issues, high self-discharge rate and nickel toxicity."

Another technology facing challenges is DMFCs in which the crossing over of methanol from the anode side to the cathode decreases the efficiency of fuel cells. Hence, the performance of DMFCs in PCs is not satisfactory in terms of power density when compared to batteries and conventional proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Conventional PEMFCs fueled by H2 can easily achieve a power density of over 200mW/cm2, while the power density of DMFCs remains under 70mW/cm2 at ambient temperatures.

"To address the energy and power density problems posed by DMFCs, fuel cell system manufacturers are likely to develop direct borohydride fuel cells (DBFCs), encouraging some of the major consumer electronic giants to choose fuel cells as the power source for mobile devices," notes Krishnan. "Key participants in the fuel cell system industry have also tried ethanol with borohydride to develop ethanol fuel cells to achieve higher power densities."

Researchers at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China have studied various DMFC systems that operate under passive conditions such as air breathing and passive methanol solution supply. This type of passive DMFC can receive greater attention in the area of small fuel cells as it offers the advantage of being simple, compact and relatively more efficient than active DMFCs.

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