Small fuel cell market size of 08 years will reach $2 billion

Traditional battery by functional limitations, gradually cannot meet the requirements of mobile phones, digital cameras, camcorders and military purposes. The face of consumer demand for high-end electrical products, small fuel cell market ushered in a great opportunity for development.

A recent survey of the Cleveland market consulting firm pointed out that due to the technology mature and product promotion, ultra small fuel cell is expected in 2007 there will be rapid growth, and is generally believed that the ultra small fuel cells in 2008 will be widely applied to the market. Global micro fuel cell market will reach $2 billion.

In June this year, the United States of New York Palkia power research company said, the company will produce a small fuel cell system using natural gas in 2006 commercial, to target the domestic fuel cell system is an important step forward. The company said that the use of natural gas fuel cell technology is the "breakthrough", which means that the United States has been the use of natural gas for heating and cooking of the about 70000000 families will be able to finally meet their demand for energy including electricity utilization of natural gas. Experts believe that by combining low cost fuels such as natural gas and high efficiency fuel cell technology, consumer electricity costs are estimated to be less than 20%.

Major companies actively R & D

In Japan, fuel cells for home use have been put on the market. SANYO electric company developed a successful output power of 1000 watts of small domestic fuel cells, put on the market after the popular users. The fuel cell is a solid polymer fuel cell. Compared with the phosphoric acid fuel cell, the fuel cell can be effectively used in electrolyte at low temperature, and can be used to prepare the required time is short, suitable for families and store emergency, but also for outdoor operation.

In recent years, due to the popularity of mobile phones to accelerate, manufacturers will soon be listed as the goal of extending fuel cell technology. Manhattan scientific company announced recently that the company successfully conducted a fuel cell phone battery test.

Manhattan science is working on the development of small batteries that can be used on all portable appliances, which can be used for longer periods of time and reduce environmental hazards. According to the company, these batteries are expected to be able to keep a digital mobile phone standby time for 6 months, compared to the use of lithium battery phone standby time is only about two weeks. In addition, if the development is successful, the battery will be able to guarantee the maintenance of a week's talk time, while the current lithium cell phone conversation time can only be maintained for 5 hours.

In view of the fuel cell technology has been a new breakthrough, major companies interested in it doubled. However, fuel cells are still not suitable for mass market, mainly due to domestic and vehicle fuel cell generators are still too high prices. Currently, the price of a home fuel cell generator is about $10 thousand per unit, is expected around 2005 the price of domestic fuel cell power generation system can be reduced to less than $5000.

Next year is expected to market

The trend in the future is that people can roam on the Internet with mobile computers, portable video cameras or mobile phones. In the future, customers will be able to connect with the mobile Internet by day and night, like the new transmission technology in GPRS mobile communications. Although the battery industry has significantly improved the power of the accumulator, however, the demand for new machines connected to the network increased significantly, and the demand is growing faster than the speed of battery power increases.

Today, micro fuel cells will provide a way out, they can provide high energy density, and can be recharged at any time. When hydrogen is stored in a metal tube, the metal tube can be replaced immediately. The size of the fuel cell and hydrogen cell can be designed separately according to the needs of the instrument.

It is well known that fuel cells are used in small power stations and cars. In most cases, the battery pack provides power from 1 kW to several hundred kilowatts. Fuel cells directly into electricity generation.

Thin film fuel cells are known as "quick start batteries," which are particularly important for regular switches and start-up machines.

As early as the spring of 1998, the Solar Energy Research Institute of the German Chamber of Commerce on the basis of polymer film fuel cells, the introduction of such a small power plant. The prototype powered by hydrogen is 20 watts. Time for a laptop computer, two times as much as a factor of up to $three.

Some experts believe that if hydrogen can meet the needs, then by 2006 this technology can be on the market. At the same time, scientists are also developing a methanol fuel cell. The battery uses a liquid methanol. However, in practical terms, it is obviously less than that of polymeric membrane fuel cells. At present, the price of polymer film is high, but with the large-scale production to meet the needs of the automotive industry, prices will come down.

Experts believe that: micro power station will not completely replace the traditional battery. Micro fuel cells are mainly used for small power and long time operation. This research is driven by Motorola and other mobile communications companies. Motorola intends to work with other companies to bring methanol fuel cell technology to market.