Fuel Cell powered flashlights?

With recent advances in Fuel Cell technology, how long do you figure it will be before they start using them in flashlights? A power source that is able to run 10 times longer than a battery and is instantly rechargeable? They already have prototypes that are small enough to fit in a PDA. Change the form factor and they should be able to fit in a light small enough for pocket carry. I think it will be possible in 5-10 years.

PC World

mtimicrofuelcells

Considering that we have nothing but prototypes and promises at this point and not a single shipping consumer product of any kind I think your estimate is probably pretty good, if not even optimistic.

But then, the regular battery companies aren't standing still or stumped themselves, but continue to improve on and experiment with other technologies at the same time. 10 years is a long time and a lot could happen with advances on regular old batteries in that time too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Or we might discover in 10 years that some third as yet unfinished technology will gain the upper hand. It's going to be interesting to watch. All these companies know that there is huge profit to be made if you can solve the problem of increasing power requirements of smaller and smaller devices. Especially in the cell phone market.

For flashlights, unlike laptops and cell phones, maybe we can skip the electrical step and make light directly from fuel. Actually that's been done for a long time, e.g. candles, Coleman (mantle) lanterns, etc. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

here's another fuel cell

The fuel cell (FC) referred to by lightbox puts out 100 milliwatts and weighs .3 oz. It deosn't say what the cost is or if it works at room temperature or if it creates toxic gases.

Well, that 100 milliwatts is enough to power a luxeon at 30 ma. That's as bright as an ARC AAA. Of course, a CR123a will power the same luxeon for over a day at that level. But that's a different issue.

Daniel

I've seen some industrial-grade fuel cells designed for running portable broadcast cameras. They exist now and I think they're actually for sale somewhere, although I still have my doubts about the safety of recharging from those gas cylinders.

I think the new self-contained units are going to open a lot of doors and make this technology accessible.