Masayo Endo, an employee for Sony Japan, displays a prototype model of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) battery (the blue part is the methanol cartridge) to charge small electronic devices such as mobile phones or digital music players. You can see it has two USB ports for charging. This DMFC charger was displayed at the International Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Expo in Tokyo in February 2009. Sony exhibited various eco-friendly power sources, including fuel cell batteries and bio batteries at the exhibition.
Current DMFCs are limited in the power they can produce, but can still store a high energy content in a small space. This means they can produce a small amount of power over a long period of time. This makes them presently ill-suited for powering vehicles (at least directly), but ideal for consumer goods such as mobile phones, digital cameras or laptops.
Methanol is toxic and flammable. However, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Dangerous Goods Panel (DGP) voted in November 2005 to allow passengers to carry and use micro fuel cells and methanol fuel cartridges when aboard airplanes to power laptop computers and other consumer electronic devices. On September 24th, 2007, the US Department of Transportation issued a proposed rule making to allow airline passengers to carry fuel cell cartridges on board. The Department of Transportation issued a final ruling on April 30, 2008, permitting passengers and crew to carry an approved fuel cell with an installed methanol cartridge and up to two additional spare cartridges. It is worth noting that 200 ml maximum methanol cartridge volume allowed in the final ruling is double the 100 ml limit on liquids allowed by the Transportation and Security Administration in carry-on bags.
