Portable fuel cells

Abstract

Portable fuel cells are under development at present for remote off-grid applications, the first niche markets having notable numbers of pieces are military and leisure applications of the direct methanol fuel cell DMFC in the power range up to several hundreds of watts. Hydrogen-fuelled cells are not applicable yet due to missing refueling infrastructure. Different storage options are evaluated at present. Specially developed micro-fuel cells are an interesting alternative to batteries, particularly if extreme long and autarkic operation is required, but in fact the breakthrough of a marketable product has not yet been achieved.