Fuel-Cell Backup Power Under Your Desk

An Anonymous Coward writes "Just up this evening on the Coleman Powermate web site: This is the first commercial fuel cell product that I am aware of. Who wants one under their Christmas tree?" I just wish the fuel wasn't quite so expensive.

Kudos to Coleman

[imrdkl]

As a UPS, this thing could probably be matched (6hr/500w) by a few more lead/acid batteries under your desk. The cool thing is that you can buy these now just like any other (very expensive) generator. Coleman has invested the capital to make clean power available, and I for one hope they find a way to make it extremely profitable. (and somewhat more affordable)

Expensive?

[r1_unknown]

The prohibitive cost of the generater itself - $6245.00 without fuel - and the cost of fuel will deter most people from owning one. What about the cost to clean one up? I know the Coleman advert doesn't really discuss it, but what if the (flammable / volatile) hydrogen is no longer safely contained in the 'low-pressure' containers? Filling a room with hydrogen is roughly the equivalent of filling the room with oxygen - it will combust (see references to the Hindenburg). While all this fuel-cell development is great for the environment / atmosphere / economy, I am not sure the consumer-level products are ready for distro... Interesting aside: on the Coleman webpage, you can (almost) order refills of the canisters - there is no price, no weight, and no canister dimensions...

Green Bait

[Anonymous Coward]

what they DON'T tell you is it probably takes 10kwh of good ol' off the grid polluting fossile fuel energy back at the factory to make 1 Kwh of nice clean green marketroid sucker bait fuel for the wealthy tree hugging crowd. The most effecient (and hence less polluting) energy is the most direct - the more steps involved the more loss there is during the conversion. Untill they can drill for or dig up plentiful supplies of hydrogen in the first place your just using even *more* oil/coal/gas/plutonium to create the illusion of enviro-friendly power. (not to mention lining the pockets of the illusionists).

Re:Green Bait

[andykuan]

I especially can't stand the comment that these fuel cells are powered by "two of the most abundant elements". Please. That implies that you can acquire H2 in much the same way you can drill for oil (the process of which, incidentally, still requires massive inputs of energy). Unless they're breaking H2O with solar power, there's some oil or coal being burnt up in order to generate the H2.

What I think is sad is that the journalists covering this stuff and the public officials setting environmental policy are just as guilty of this energy-source-misdirection as the marketers of the technology are. How many times have we heard that electric cars are 100% environmentally friendly and will solve all of our pollution problems? Where do these people think electricity comes from?

Now if someone will merge solar power into the equation, then we'd be on to something. If Coleman provided a means to refuel those H2 canisters yourself you could hypothetically power the refueling device with a solar array. Now THAT would be environmentally friendly.

Re:Great.... If you can afford it.

[stuffman64]

Ok... that may seem reasonable. Except, if you look at the pic on the website, the container looks like a bottle of motor oil. Empty bottles of motor oil weigh in at about an ounce. The current going rate for gold is about $260 an ounce. I can not imagine a container costing more than its weight in gold. Of course, they can make it out of platinum, and I would be wrong...

Not even close to being the first

[inicom]

GE has been selling their fuel cell systems for over a year. Sizes from whole house residential systems to commercial building-sized units.

They use propane (or natural gas?) and extract the hydrogen from there. Still have the problem of storage, but at least propane/natural gas storage is common and suppliers abound.