Samsung patents hydrogen fuel cell for phones
April 24, 2007
A patent application filed in September 2006 and published last week shows how Samsung intends to use hydrogen fuel cells to power mobile phones.
The Multi-layered thin film hydrogen fuel cell system solves problems with current fuel cell systems having “low efficiency in hydrogen storage” making them too large to fit inside a modern mobile device.
The invention uses a “multi-layered thin film hydrogen fuel cell system which is applicable as a power supplying device like a battery or a portable electric generator for a portable electronic device such as a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a camcorder, a digital camera, a notebook computer and the like. ”
With large companies such as Samsung investing time and money into fuel cells it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the first hydrogen powered phones to roll off the production line.
[0030] According to an aspect of the invention for realizing the object, there is provided a multi-layered thin film hydrogen fuel cell system using hydrogen carbon compound as fuel, including: a reformer comprising a flow path formed at a side of a substrate and a catalyst in the flow path to reform a fuel into hydrogen; a cell for generating current using the hydrogen from the reformer, the cell comprising a pair of first and second substrates covering the substrate of the reformer, the first substrate disposed at the side of the reformer, and a Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) disposed between the pair of substrates with a catalyst formed thereon; and a combustor for burning remaining fuel gas to generate heat, the combustor comprising a substrate disposed at an outer side of the second substrate of the cell and a flow path formed in the substrate with a catalyst formed thereon.
[0031] According to another aspect of the invention for realizing the object, there is provided a multi-layered thin film hydrogen fuel cell system using hydrocarbon compound as fuel, including: a reformer comprising a flow path formed at a side of a substrate and a catalyst formed in the flow path to reform a fuel into hydrogen; first and second cells disposed at both sides of the reformer for utilizing hydrogen from the reformer to generate current, each of the cells comprising a substrate to cover the substrate of the reformer and a Membrane Electrolyte Assembly (MEA) disposed in the substrate of the cell with a catalyst thereon; and first and second combustors for burning remaining fuel gas, the first combustor disposed at an outer side of the substrate of the first cell, the second combustor disposed at an outer side of the substrate of the second cell, each of the combustors comprising a substrate having a flow path formed in the substrate of the combustor with a catalyst formed thereon.
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