FuelCellsWorks

Credited by Aquafairy Corporation

Aquafairy Corporation, which has been known as a developer of a unique micro fuel cell not using methanol, has completed the development of battery chargers based on the unique micro fuel cells, and entered the stage of production and sales of the chargers.

Aquafairy Corporation reached an agreement with GS Yuasa Power Supply Ltd. on the production and sales of the developed charges, which will be used for charging external batteries and built-in batteries of portable devices.
Upon the agreement, the companies have a plan to develop technologies for charging various types of GS Uasa’s batteries, including lithium ion batteries, and integrally incorporate the battery mass production technologies into the charging technologies, with the intention of increasing the number of applied products.
The responsibility assignment of the companies will be determined in consideration with future product demand trend.
Incidentally, Aquafairy said that the development of the battery chargers satisfying the specifications of intended portable devices had been completed.
The company said that the chargers will be put into market as early in 2010 as possible, and samples of the chargers have been shipped.
Development of the built-in type micro fuel cell is under progress.

As known, the Aquafairy’s micro fuel cell generates electricity while generating hydrogen as fuel. The fuel cell is PEFC (polymer electrolyte fuel cell).
Hydrogen generating agent and water are contained in a cassette. To use, the user merely sets the cassette to the fuel cell body. Then, water is added to the hydrogen generating agent to generate hydrogen.
Major noteworthy features of the Aquafairy’s micro fuel cell are:
1) The fuel of the fuel cell is not toxic methanol, leading to being highly safe.
2) Hydrogen is directly supplied from the cassette, eliminating the need of the reformer. This leads to size, weight and cost reduction.

The size, charging ability and price of the Aquafairy’s micro fuel cell, which is currently utilized as the charger, are as below and are all acceptable, I guess.
1. Size
Fuel cell body = 1.9 cm wide and deep, and 5 cm high
Cassette = 1 cm wide and deep, and 3.5 cm high
2. Charging ability
a) Capable of fully charging the mobile phone battery for 2 hours
b) Capable of the net-book battery for about 3 hours by
using four micro fuel cells
3. Price
a) Fuel cell body = about 2,000 yen (1 USD = about 90 yen)
b) Cassette = about 100 yen
(1 to 3 above are cited from Mainichi Shimbun)

Aquafairy lists the advantageous technical features of the charger as follows:
1. FC cell is thin and power generation efficiency is high
2. Supply of hydrogen is stably controllable, ensuring safety and reliability (hydrogen generation system)
3. Includes a sophisticated electronics circuit for causing the fuel cell to efficiently output electricity

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