[CEATEC 2013] Is the world suffering from a shortage in energy? It really depends on where you are living at the moment, and one of the major drawbacks that many of us face these days in the use of our gadgets happen to be the battery life – or rather, the lack of it. ROHM has come up with what they deem to be a revolutionary power generation system that will use just the right amount of hydrogen in order to produce the required amount of electricity, now how about that for efficiency?
It is touted to be a safe and new solid hydrogen fuel source, with a reactivity level that is around 1/1000 that of powder. How is it safe, you ask? Well, hydrogen is only produced when it reacts to water, and the only byproduct is not an explosion, but slaked lime – or calcium hydroxide if you want to get technical about things. ROHM has come up with a solid hydrogen source canister and a cartridge, where the latter will offer a full smartphone charge per use, while the former can power a 32” LCD TV for 3 hours. These are single use solutions that might come in handy during emergencies or when you travel, and hopefully it will be able to create a market of its own eventually with a justifiable cost for consumers.
ROHM Solid Hydrogen Source Fuel Cell original content from Ubergizmo. 
     |
[CEATEC 2012] At CEATEC this year, there have been quite a lot of trends that many companies seem to be trying to cash in to. Smart homes, wireless charging, and going green. Rohm is no execption. At its exhibition booth, the company showed off its upcoming high-capacity hydrogen fuel cells. A joint project with Aquafairy, it was announced earlier last month and at CEATEC we got to see it in action. Demonstrated with a portable charger, one relatively small fuel cell is said to be able to fully charge an iPhone within a couple of hours. Pretty impressive for something so small. However, the cell isn’t rechargeable and needs to be disposed after it has been depleted, and when coupled with its plastic container it can quickly pile up to a huge amount of unrecyclable waste (despite the battery being eco-friendly). The good news is that these batteries produce no harmful emissions and can be combined to produce more power – at a fraction of the weight of regular batteries (car batteries were used for comparison here).
