Butane Fuel Cell to Hit Market in 2007

Seoul July 15, 2005; Kim Sung-jin writing for the Korea Times reported that Samsung SDI will commercialize a new fuel cell capable of using retail butane gas to generate power for portable electric and electronic devices by 2007.

The world’s largest plasma display panel (PDP) maker said yesterday that it has developed a fuel cell that can generate 100 watts of electricity for five successive hours with liquefied butane contained in the 220 gram gas cartridge generally used for portable gas cookers.

Samsung SDI said it is second only to Matsushita Electric Industrial of Japan to develop the butane-based fuel cell but would be the first to commercialize the technology.

Samsung SDI spokesman said Matsushita failed both to enhance the durability of the fuel cell and to commercialize the technology.

With the environmentally friendly butane-based fuel cell, users can run their notebook PCs, which generally consume 20 watt of electricity, for more than 20 hours, and portable color TVs, that consume 60 watts, for over eight hours, the company said.

Other electronic appliances such as digital versatile disc (DVD) players and audio players as well as electric devices such as electric lamps can also run on the butane fuel cell, it added.

Fuel cells are on-site generation devices that produce electricity through an electrochemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen, rather than through combustion. Benefits include higher energy efficiency and near-zero emissions of pollutants and other harmful particulate matter.

All users need to do is insert the butane gas cartridge, which generally costs less than a dollar in Korea, into the portable fuel cell cabinet and hook up the electric power cable to the notebook PC or other portable electric and electronic gadgets.

Samsung SDI expects the butane fuel cell would emerge as a popular portable electricity generator for households as it can be used for outdoor activities that require electricity or for lighting lamps during electrical blackouts.

The only demerit of the new invention is that the fuel cell unit weighs 10 kilograms, making it difficult for an individual to carry around.

``We will improve the portable feature of the fuel cell by reducing both the size and weight of the fuel cell to 50 percent of the current prototype. We will reduce the butane-based fuel cell down to notebook PC-use batteries in the long term,’’ said Yoon Seok-yeol, executive vice president in charge of Samsung SDI’s corporate research and development center.

``We have secured a strong foothold to advance into household and automobile-application segments of the fuel cell market by developing butane fuel cells,’’ he added.

Yoon said Samsung SDI plans to commercialize the butane fuel cell products by 2007, while pushing up the electricity output to 300 watts.

The portable fuel cell market is forecast for $1.2 billion by 2010, according to Nomura Research Institute of Japan.