With oil near $50 a barrel, alternatives to gasoline are attracting more attention - including fuel cells, devices that convert hydrogen into electric current with no waste products except heat and pure water.

Fuel cells have found their way into power systems for laptop computers and into many experimental cars. The main drawback to automotive use of fuel cells, though, has been their cost, which at $100,000 can be 25 times the $4,000 for a gasoline engine of equal power. Lately, some companies, including Honda, have been trying to come up with cheaper versions of the most expensive part of a fuel cell: the membrane that takes the hydrogen fuel and separates it into protons and electrons.

This morning, a California company, PolyFuel, plans to announce that it has achieved a breakthrough in fuel-cell membranes by using an alternative material: a hydrocarbon that it says costs only about half as much per square meter.

Compared with the fluorine compounds that are the most commonly used for membranes in fuel cells now under testing, PolyFuel says that hydrocarbon membranes allow production of more electricity per square centimeter of membrane. That could mean that a fuel cell could produce the same power as a fluorine-membrane version, but would be smaller and lighter, further adding to efficiency, according to the company.

As temperatures soar this summer, so do electric bills. Researchers at the University of Houston are striving toward decreasing those costs with the next revolution in power generation.

Imagine a power source so small, yet so efficient, that it could make cumbersome power plants virtually obsolete while lowering your electric bill. A breakthrough in thin film solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is currently being refined in labs at the University of Houston, making that dream a reality.

A trick that boosts the power of miniature hydrogen fuel cells by up to 50 per cent has been revealed by US researchers. Such fuel cells could help keep portable gadgets up and running - cellphone giant Nokia warned last week that battery technology is not keeping pace with advanced phone functions.

Mechanical engineers Suk Won Cha and Fritz Prinz at Stanford University in California found they can dramatically increase efficiency by shrinking the channels that deliver fuel to the cell's heart.

The apparent downside is that the effect only works with hydrogen fuel cells, whereas liquid methanol is currently the fuel of choice for consumer electronics firms like Motorola and NEC that are developing fuel-cell-powered cellphones and laptops. They favour methanol because it releases more energy than hydrogen, volume for volume, so methanol-powered gadgets would be able to have smaller "fuel tanks".

California Institute of Technology researchers have built a type of fuel cell that uses a solid acid electrolyte and either hydrogen or methanol as fuel. It could eventually be used to power cars.

Hitachi and Japanese ciggie lighter maker Tokai will ship a direct methanol fuel cell system for PDAs in 2005. And they have already built the prototype, the pair said this week.

Scientists are scrambling to perfect the fuel cell as a methanol-powered source for energy-hungry laptops and other portable devices.

A unique group of oxide materials that readily gives up and accepts oxygen atoms with changes in temperature could be the basis for a small-scale hydrogen production system able to power fuel cells in homes -- and potentially in automotive applications. Scientists have long known that oxides of the rare earth elements cerium (Ce), terbium (Tb), and praseodymium (Pr) can produce hydrogen from water vapor and methane in continuous "inhale and exhale" cycles. By doping iron atoms into the oxides, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have lowered the temperatures at which these "oxygen pump" materials produce hydrogen, potentially allowing the process to be powered by solar energy.

The driver looks through a vast, sloped windshield that covers space usually taken up by an engine. There is no dashboard, instrument panel, steering wheel or pedals — just a set of adjustable footrests. All controls are electronic, so that the driver twists a pair of handles to go, moves them to turn and squeezes them to stop.

This, though, is no Hollywood moviemaker's fantasy car.

It is General Motors Corp.'s Hy-Wire, a hydrogen-fueled, electricity-producing concept car that the company debuted in Sacramento last week. The car's fuel cell produces 94 kilowatts of power; that's equal to 126 horsepower, about the same as in a Ford Focus. The Hy-Wire, which generates a loud whine when moving, can travel 140 miles before refueling.

Biofuel cell runs on metabolic energy to power medical implants.
Our bodies could one day power their own electronic implants. Chemists have developed a miniature battery that could run on bodily fluids to drive sensors to monitor our health.

The biofuel cell converts directly into electricity the energy produced when glucose reacts with oxygen during normal metabolism. It could be inserted in contact with glucose-containing body fluids under the skin or in the spinal cord, for example.

According to reports in BusinessWeek, the US Department of Transportation has ruled that a new fuel cell developed by US company Polyfuel can be taken on airplanes.
The announcement clears the way for the commercialisation of fuel cells as an alternative to batteries in notebook computers. The use of direct methanol fuel cells on aeroplanes has been questioned as they contain methanol, which is flammable.

Accordign to Jim Balcom, Polyfuel's CEO, the US DOT said that a fuel cell designed by his company could be taken into aircraft cabins when it goes on sale because it contains a relatively low concentration of methanol.