Jun 7 2006
UltraCell Corporation has announced that it has received a contract award from the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center's (CERDEC) Army Power Division to accelerate development of the XX25, a 25-watt reformed methanol fuel cell, for use as a soldier power device.
The contract will drive advanced system design for the UltraCell unit to operate in extreme operating temperature and withstand severe shock and vibration and other Mil-Spec required environments. In addition, the XX25 has up to a 75% weight advantage over currently available military rechargeable batteries, based on a 72-hour mission at 20 watts. (Longer missions at higher power levels will show greater improvements.) The XX25 also reduces operational costs through the reduction of throwaway primary batteries and the logistic burden of recharging batteries.
In addition to the military's field testing of the XX25, UltraCell is now accepting lead beta site customers in critical markets for testing a commercial version, the UC25.
UltraCell's methanol micro fuel cell systems provide "Totally wireless - portable power anytime, anywhere". Both the XX25 and UC25, for example, will be able to run a ruggedized laptop computer for up to three working days on a single fuel cell cartridge. It will run other portable electronic devices for emergency responders, operating off of simple and inexpensive methanol cartridges. The XX25 and UC25 can also be configured with large volumes of fuel for weeks of runtime in stationary applications such as remote video monitoring
UltraCell's patented reformed methanol fuel cell (RMFC) system internally generates fuel-cell-ready hydrogen from a highly concentrated methanol solution. The new portable power system thus has the power density of a hydrogen fuel cell but uses readily available, low cost methanol fuel in a convenient, compact cartridge.
http://www.ultracellpower.com