john flanagan wrote: > To make a good fuel cell is a Black Art. There's a lot of issues that you > can learn about by making a few web searches. And if you want a fuel cell > for a *wearable*, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Fuel cells have > scaling problems too. A fuel cell which generates enough power for a > wearable would be pretty damn big, with most of the size and weight > being the high-pressure container for the hydrogen. And the hydrogen > needs to be delivered into the fuel cell at high pressure too. Hm. > Those fuel cell designs which dodge the problem of pressurized hydrogen do > it by using other fuels (like methane) which are heat-cracked into > hydrogen. But that requires the fuel cell to be *damn* hot, like 650 > degrees Celsius hot. Don't think I can do that.... Hydrogen from splitting water is possible... Not sure about pressure. =) > I remember reading about some research group (at MIT I think) which fit a > very small gas/alcohol turbine generator (with fuel!) into a laptop > battery's form factor. I forget how long it lasted before running out of > gas though. But that's a solution which might scale better for a > wearable, if you're willing to walk around with a canister of gasoline > strapped to your back. Most people are willing to drive around on one... Walking is safer than driving, you have more direct control... =) > Hey, now there's an idea. > > We could have a combination gas-powered laptop & flamethrower! That was suggested when the idea first came up. =) > John Flanagan Rob -- Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" toWear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.ml.org
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