Sony's Micro Hybrid Fuel Cell System combines methanol-based fuel cell and a Lithium-polymer battery

Sony's Micro Hybrid Fuel Cell System combines methanol-based fuel cell and a Lithium-polymer battery. Following the last posts (Angstrom Micro-Hydrogen Fuel Cell-Powered Batteries, Fuel Cells in 2009 will double the capacity of regular Li-ion Batteries, and Samsung: Water-powered fuel cells for Cellphones by 2010), Recently Sony has debuted a new hybrid fuel cell system that raises the longevity of current fuel cell systems. By combining a methanol-based fuel cell and a Lithium-polymer battery, the new hybrid fuel cell is capable of playing 14 hours of 1Seg video broadcast on just 10mL of methanol.

The technology was shown off at the Smart Fuel Cells 2008 conference and proves that a hybrid fuel cell design can help increase a device's uptime. Unlike traditional fuel cells that need to be topped off immediately when they run dry (much like combustion-based vehicles today), the Sony hybrid fuel cell uses the electricity produced by the methanol fuel cell to charge the Lithium-polymer battery - this setup allows the device to run on the Lithium battery after the fuel cell's methanol supply has been used up.

At 1.2 by nearly 2 inches, the system could be used in mobile devices, and Sony is taking steps to commercialize the design. The prototype is a result or research and development done at the Sony Material Laboratory, which rates the instantaneous power output of its creation at up to 3W.

(source)