We’ve been waiting around for awhile for a laptop that uses methanol fuel cells. Finally, PolyFuel has finished up a working prototype for a fuel cell-powered laptop, the Lenovo T40 ThinkPad. The laptop runs on direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), and each methanol cartridge provides power for about 10 hours of use. There are some great features to this, and some not so great features.

First off, the battery prototype is quite a bit lighter than the OEM battery the Lenovo uses, which is great, but it is larger, which is not so great. It offers three times the battery life than the current battery, yet 10 hours per charge doesn’t seem like a whole lot of use time. I don’t think I’d enjoy refilling the thing every day, sometimes twice a day. I’m hoping they’ll be able to squeeze a few more hours out of each charge before putting it on the market. Researchers believe that if they can get the fuel cell to operate at 100% capacity, they will be able to get 10 times the power of a comparable Li-Ion battery. That would be pretty stunning. MIT is already on the ball with improving efficiency of DMFCs.

Another great feature is that the fuel cell can be made from biodegradable or recyclable materials – a big plus. And of course the fact that the fuel itself is renewable is a significant feature. But just where to buy and how much methanol cartridges will cost is still going to play a big role in the laptop’s marketability. PolyFuel believes the laptop could be on the market in 2 to 3 years, so they have a little while to figure these details out.

DMFCs are an emerging technology for smaller devices, and we’re likely to see a whole slew of handheld gadgets and smaller computers start to utilize the technology on a larger scale in just a couple years, with wider availability to consumers shortly after that.

Via Ecofriend, iGreenspot, GreenUpgrader

The US Department of Transportation is putting up some stakes for getting green jet fuel out on the market. DOT and the Federal Aviation Administration together are giving $500,000 to nonprofit X Prize Foundation in order for them to develop a competition to get private industry thinking creatively about renewable jet fuels and technology for aviation. Private sponsors will help to fund a significant prize for the winner of the competition – a purse carrying as much as $10 million. That’s a pretty attractive carrot to dangle in front of private industry – and I’m sure Green Flight International will have a leg up on the competition.

The X Prize Foundation has been wrangling with the DOT and FAA for this competition since the mid-90s, so it must be a sweet relief to finally be moving forward. The nonprofit will talk with aviation industry experts over the next 14 months to figure out rules, structure, and the prize, hopefully launching the competition by 2011. Once the competition is launched, they’re looking at about 5 years for development, with a winner coming out around 2016. Seems slow as snails to me, especially considering the leaps and bounds being made in alternative fuels, but I suppose in reality – and not Generation Now speed – that’s still a pretty brisk clip for developing this new technology, especially if they’ve been pushing since the ‘90s to get this off the ground.

And this isn’t the only competition the X Prize Foundation has going on - it’s actually their fifth. They held the Ansari X Prize for private suborbital space flight which was won in 2004, they have the current $10 million Archon X Prize for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize for energy-efficient vehicles. For the latter competition’s prize, DOT granted X Prize Foundation $3.5 million to educate young people about fuel efficient autos. So after looking so intently at the ground, we’re going to see some attention paid to the sky.

Via cnet; Photo via Bcorreira