Fuelling a home revolution

A breakthrough in fuel cells based on the use of nanotechnology could see the devices rapidly commercialised into mass-market products from mobile phones to home entertainment systems.

Italian firm Acta has developed a new type of catalyst that contains no expensive platinum and operates using the abundant metals cobalt, nickel and silver.

The device can work at low temperatures and uses cheap, safe and environmentally-friendly materials such as ethanol, rather than hydrogen or methanol, which is toxic. This, the company claims, will overcome one of the major hurdles in the development of a fuel cell market.

Ethanol can be transported, handled and distributed cheaply and safely, said Toby Woolrych, chief operations officer at Acta. The fuel cell should also last up to eight hours before re-filling, he said.

‘While there is a long-term consumer wish for a greener world and to solve the problem of greenhouse gases, the consumer wish for tomorrow is for a power supply to support increasing application demands,’ he said.