Samsung: Water-powered cell phones by 2010

(Credit: Samsung)

Samsung has developed a new kind of cell phone battery that's powered by water and is aiming to bring it to market by 2010.

Here's how it works: When the handset is switched on, reaction between metal and water in the phone produce hydrogen gas. This is then channeled to the fuel cell, where it reacts with oxygen in the air to generate power.

Samsung says the new battery could last for up to 10 hours. Based on four hours of use daily on average, the hydrogen cartridge would have to be replaced about every five days.

The next development would be to eliminate the hydrogen cartridge altogether and to rely only on water. While all that sounds promising, we guess it'll be hard to persuade people to adopt it en masse. After all, we've been trying to keep our phones away from water.

(Source: Crave Asia)

[hawkeyeaz1]

So why aren't they doing this for other devices like cars?

[b_baggins]

Because it's a stupid idea. What they are doing is adding sodium or a similar metal hydride to the water. Yeah, you get hydrogen gas, but you also produce lots of heat and a rather nasty substance called sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner), not to mention a highly flammable gas.

So, basically, you're producing flammable gas combined with heat with drain cleaner as a by product.

It's a stupid idea exploiting people's poor understanding of chemistry.

[jonathan_a]

Because then our Government would lose billions in dollars of fuel. No way they want to throw away that much money just to save the environment. They couldn't care less about that, they just want to keep making money selling fuel.

[Hoser McMoose]

Hawkeyeaz1, people ARE experimenting with similar technology for vehicles, but the results haven't been overly promising. The real trick here is the amount of energy required to MAKE THE METAL in the first place.

Generally speaking you need to put nearly 10 times as much energy in to produce the metal as you get out (in the form of hydrogen) from the reaction with water. Then you lose half that energy converting from hydrogen back to electricity in a fuel cell. Not a huge issue in cell phones were we're talking about 20 watts-hours in for 1 watt-hour out, but for a car when you start talking about 1MWh in (~$100) for 50kWh out it's a BIG problem.

[dan356]

The Reason their not using hydrogen, is because the oil companys need to run the oil buissness dry. Than they can start to invest in hydrogen, or any alternative fuels.

[royauty]

I'm a little confused where the "waste" water goes after the hydrogen and oxygen have been combined back into water in the fuel cell. Does this cell phone dribble water at intermittent intervals? Does this cell phone pee?

[Pard68]

I dont like the idea of water near my phone let alone water in my phone! But it will work. And as for the hydrogen stuff, it isn't that it doesnt work the fact is we run on gas and to convert to hydrogen takes a bit more than a week. You need to replace all the gas stations with hydrogen stations. Not only that but there are limitations. And actually go look at CNET main page there is an article on the BMW that runs are Hydrogen it works

[autoboy70]

Sorry, stop spreading the myths. This is not a "water" powered device. The energy is coming from the metal that converts the water to hydrogen. Actually, wait, that is how a typical battery works too! What a concept!

This is not a perpetual motion machine. There is no way to get energy from turning water into water.

[autoboy70]

Dan356. Shut up. You are dumb. Alternative fuels have a long time to go before they are financially viable energy sources. Hydrogen does not grow on trees or come out of the ground. You have to make it with...wait for it...MORE ENERGY! That energy must come from somewhere and so far, nobody has come up with a better energy source than fossil fuels. When they do, it will take some time. You can't wave your magic wand and create a new energy economy.

[b_baggins]

Actually, the best alternative fuel would probably be cracking hydrogen from water using nuclear power, then passing it over carbon to make, wait for it: Gasoline.

But there's no reason to do that as long as we are dripping wet in oil. The breaking point will come when environmentalists will finally be told to go to h#ll and we'll actually start producing energy again. Unfortunately, I don't think it will happen until there is a lot more misery in the world.

[albizzia]

No, it's not powered by water, it's powered by the metal that reacts with water to form hydrogen and metal oxide. Since the metal gets used up, the cartridge must be replaced frequently, and would probably cost more than disposable batteries would, and would certainly cost much more than simply plugging in a rechargable battery every night. Something tells me this isn't going to catch on.