Get Ready for Water-Powered Cell Phones

A model poses with Samsung Electro-Mechanics' newly developed micro-fuel cell which will allow mobile phones to be powered by water. /Samsung Electro-mechanics


In 2010 your mobile phone may be powered by water. Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced Thursday that it has developed a micro-fuel cell and hydrogen generator that runs on H20.
"When the handset is turned on, metal and water in the phone react to produce hydrogen gas," explained Oh Yong-soo, vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' research center. "The gas is then supplied to the fuel cell where it reacts with oxygen in the air to generate power." Other fuel cells need methanol to produce hydrogen, while Samsung's needs only water.

Since the micro-fuel cell can generate up to three watts of electricity, it could be used in mobile devices, the company said. The new fuel cell could power a handset for 10 hours, twice as long as rechargeable batteries.

Oh said water-powered handsets are expected to hit the market by 2010. "If the user uses the phone for four hours a day on average, they would have to change the hydrogen cartridge about every five days," Oh said. "Later handsets will be developed that don't need the hydrogen cartridges to be changed, and would only need to be filled with water."

Samsung Electro-Mechanics unveiled the new technology at the 2007 Korea Electronics Show at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.

source