Company integrates fuel cells into smartphones and laptops for long battery life

The company Intelligent Energy claims to be able to integrate layers of hydrogen-based fuel cells in smartphones and laptops to give the devices a significantly longer battery life. Smartphones and laptops hardly need to be adapted for this.

Intelligent Energy’s fuel cells are of the proton exchange membrane type and the layers in which the cells are incorporated are less than a millimeter thick, which means that they can be added to laptops without significant adjustments, according to the manufacturer. For smartphones, the company produces a layer with dimensions of 120x64x7.8mm, but the thickness can be adjusted according to the size of the smartphone. However, the housings must be perforated on the surfaces of the cell layers for the oxygen. Alternatively, the layers can be attached externally to the housing for easier replacement.

For laptops, the fuel cartridges offer an equivalent capacity of 18,200mAh and would allow an 18-hour increase in battery life. With higher capacity SuperFuel 2 cartridges, significantly longer battery life would be within reach. Intelligent Energy cites the example of a Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11E that gets 8 hours on its 35Wh battery, but when combined with SuperFuel 2 fuel cells, it lasts up to more than 50 hours on a single charge. With smartphones, the added capacity of an iPhone 6 Plus is equivalent to 17,500 mAh, increasing the talk time via 3G to 130 hours and the internet time to 65 hours.

Intelligent Energy does not want to market the products itself, but works with other parties to do so. They should then ensure that users in the shops can purchase a cable for refilling the cartridges. According to the inventor, this should be possible for a price of ‘a cup of coffee’. Intelligent Energy claims to have 100 patents on the technology and to license it. The manufacturer also equips drones with its fuel cells, which should then be able to remain in the air for several hours.

Intelligent Energy claims to have reached an agreement with an ’emerging’ smartphone maker about the integration of its technology in smartphones.