Wearable Fuel Cells Are For Soldiers Now; Could Power Your Gadgets Tomorrow

Posted 02/23/2009 at 1:14pm | by Andy Salisbury

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This week a German company introduced a wearable fuel cell that uses methanol fuel cell technology, allowing soldiers that wear them to rid themselves of the heavy mechanical components generally associated with the generation of electrical power.

The fuel cell, known as the Jenny 600S, is capable of delivering 25 watts of power for 20 hours, according to the Smart Fuel Cell company. Their fuel cells took the top spot in the U.S. Department of Defense’s Wearable Power Competition last October against heavy competition from powerhouse competitors.

The Jenny’s liquid methanol fuel cartridges are replicable, and can be worn in a vest. It will also swap from standby mode to automatically recharge its own batteries when required to. It’s silent and can work in any position, and will reduce the weight in batteries that soldiers have to carry by an estimated 70 percent.

It hasn’t been announced when these will start hitting the front lines, but for the sake of the soldiers, we can only hope that it won’t be too long!

Image Credit: SFC