NEW YORK-It keeps going and going and going, but it isn’t a rabbit or a battery.
It’s a miniature version of the methanol-powered fuel cells used to run rocket ships. Robert G. Hockaday, inventor of the patented Hockaday Micro-Fuel Cell, promises it will give wireless phones talk times of 100 hours and standby times of more than 40 days. The refillable fuel cell itself probably can last for decades since it is made of plastic, Hockaday told RCR.
Hockaday’s company, Energy Related Devices Inc., Los Alamos, N.M., received a major vote of confidence late last month when Manhattan Scientifics Inc., New York, committed $1 million to the company in development capital.
Manhattan Scientifics, which holds the exclusive worldwide license for the Hockaday Micro-Fuel Cell, is organized to identify, acquire and commercialize emerging technologies. New York financier Marvin Maslow is chairman both of Manhattan Scientifics and its parent company, Projectavision Inc., a publicly traded company also headquartered in New York.
Within a year, Hockaday said he hopes to have a working prototype available for commercial manufacture. The fuel cell is so small that it won’t add to the size or weight of wireless phones, and it won’t cost more at retail prices than nickel cadmium batteries, he said.
The first incarnation of a full cell likely will play the role of a continuous recharging device, which will work with lead acid batteries like those now used in some Sony Wireless Telecommunications Co. handsets.
“Lead acid batteries have good storage capability and the ability to deliver power quickly, but they (also) dissipate overcharges. That’s why we have them in our cars,” Hockaday said.
Users will know when the fuel cell’s methanol contents run dry via a see-through gauge, like on a steam iron. Like some bath oils sold in women’s cosmetics departments, the refill will come in the form of a small ampul. Just snip or pop off the end of the tip and squeeze the methanol-the basic ingredient of hard liquor-into the spongy center inside the fuel cell’s plastic case. The plastic will be sufficiently hard and sealed so that any impact great enough to puncture it also likely would destroy the handset, Hockaday said.
Manhattan Scientifics seeks to commercialize the first-generation fuel cell through strategic alliances with Fortune 100 companies. Maslow and Hockaday said their goal is to keep the fuel cell manufacturing in New Mexico, near the research and engineering facilities of Manhattan Scientifics and Energy Related Devices.
Once the first fuel cell model is out of the box, Hockaday plans to proceed with research on the next generation. The goal is to eliminate the battery altogether, replacing it with a voltage regulating chip, he said.
Hockaday left his job as a diagnostic physicist for Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1994 to devote full-time effort to the fuel cell idea, in which he has invested a decade of work so far. He estimates it has cost him $25,000 per year to bring his invention to its present state.
But he needed more capital to commercialize the fuel cell. In August, the Los Alamos Laboratory’s Civilian and Industrial Technologies Program office introduced Hockaday to Maslow.
“I didn’t understand all the details of the fuel cell technology, but Bob really impressed me with his determination and entrepreneurial spirit,” Maslow said.
“That’s what I invest in, people. People are what makes technology happen.”
Last month, Manhattan Scientifics raised $1 million in new capital to finance its investment in Energy Related Devices.
“Conventional financing for technology start-ups typically takes three or four years before a company is taken public,” Maslow said.
“I practice an approach I call `guerrilla financing’ to bring capital to a project quickly so the momentum of research is not impeded by tedious analysis and negotiations.”
Manhattan Scientifics plans other partnerships based on the technology and talent of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Maslow said.
