Fuel cell chargers are now commercially available from Aquafairy Corporation in Japan. The chargers came on the market this April. The charger is one of the really commercialized fuel cell products, not many, and is the hot product.
Many medias have reported the FC charger. For its details, refer to the medias. The company’s website also presents the details of the product.
The product name of the charger is AF-M3000. The fuel cell used is of PEFC type. The output power of the charger is 3 W. The price is a little lower than 400 USD. Hydrogen as the fuel is generated in a simple manner that a cartridge containing hydrogen generating agent is set to the charger body and then water is injected into a water port of the charger body. The hydrogen generating agent is calcium hydride. In use, AF-M3000 as the charger is applied to a rechargeable-battery contained device, such as smart phones, mobile phones, mobile game machines, to charge the battery.
With regard to the hydrogen supplying system to the fuel cell system, the company has many useful technologies that have already been developed and are now being developed. Some of those technologies have been incorporated into the product, and other technologies will be incorporated into the same. Some important features are:
1) to on/off control the supply of hydrogen.
2) to control an amount of hydrogen to be produced in accordance with an amount of electric power used. In other words, the Aquafairy’s hydrogen supply control system is capable of controlling the power supply to a device (e.g., note PC) of which the load largely varies, while following up a large load variation. The control function will be incorporated into the charger next Spring.
3) To continuously supply hydrogen fuel to such a device that is operable at low power consumption for a long time. Necessity of the fuel replenishing operation and the recharging operation are completely removed, as a matter of course.
Development of micro SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) is being actively made worldwide. This tendency is part of movement to replace PEFC with SOFC. The major reason for this is to use the SOFC having many advantages for the power sources of small devices such as mobile phones, note PCs, APU and residential CHP systems. As known, the SOFC is superior to the PEFC in that the power generation efficiency is high, the structure is simple, the durability is high, and a variety of fuels may be used for the fuel.
A company (Germany) has reached a stage where the micro SOFC is successfully assembled into the mobile phone. The SOFC unit used consists of an integration of ceramic tubular SOFC elements each being 3 mm in diameter and 4 to 5 cm in length. The output power of the SOFC unit is 1 W. The primary fuel of the micro SOFC is camping or lighter gas. At least two points are unknown to me. The first is the startup time of the SOFC unit. The second is how to technically deal with the considerably high temperature. The micro SOFC that is assembled into the mobile phone, when it is operating, must be at considerably high temperature.
[Copyright by FuelCell japan]
In Japan, the prototype of the micro SOFC was manufactured at the time of 2006. The prototype was at relatively high levels of performances and reached the stage of mass production. Tubular SOFC elements are integrated into a micro SOFC unit. Each tubular element is about 1 cm in length and 1.6 mm in diameter. The output power of the prototype was 0.17 to 1 W/cm2 at 450 to 570 degrees C. Ceria ceramics was used for the electrodes as well as the electrolyte. At this time, a micro SOFC prototype using tubular elements having 0.8 mm diameter was also manufactured successfully.
The technology levels of the micro SOFCs in Japan seems to be high enough when comparing with those in other countries, so far as I know. The micro SOFCs referred to here is the one developed in an initial stage of the development and had reached a mass production stage. In addition to the micro SOFCs referred to here, there are many other excellent micro-SOFC technologies, which had been developed up to mass production levels. I have never heard that those micro SOFCs have been practically used, however. I don’t understand the reason why any action has been taken to apply those developed SOFCs to practical devices, such as mobile phones and smart phones.
I wrote the blog in light of recent small fuel cells, although it was a casual idea popped up to my mind. I have a plan to write recent micro SOFCs mainly of Japan in the form of report. I am gathering materials for writing the report. The writing work isn’t going as well as I would like. I'm planning to go writing the report in English. I feel that a fewer number of publications on recent micro SOFC technologies in Japan have been presented to general pubic.
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I have recently formed the sub-site of Aquafairy Corporation in my website, FuelCell japan. If interested, please visit my website FuelCell japan.
In my website, please click “Companies & Products” on the top page, and then find “Aquafairy Corporation”.
I introduced the company in my blog FuelCell japan-1 about two years ago.
