Latest Technology Trends

Water-Powered Mobiles

Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced Thursday that it has developed a micro-fuel cell and hydrogen generator that runs on H2O.

“When the handset is turned on, metal and water in the phone react to produce hydrogen gas,” explained Oh Yong-soo, vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ research center. “The gas is then supplied to the fuel cell where it reacts with oxygen in the air to generate power.” Other fuel cells need methanol to produce hydrogen, while Samsung’s needs only water.

Since the micro-fuel cell can generate up to three watts of electricity, it could be used in mobile devices, the company said. The new fuel cell could power a handset for 10 hours, twice as long as rechargeable batteries.

“If the user uses the phone for four hours a day on average, they would have to change the hydrogen cartridge about every five days,” Oh said. “Later handsets will be developed that don’t need the hydrogen cartridges to be changed, and would only need to be filled with water.”

The water-powered cell phones are expected to enter the market by 2010. Samsung Electro-Mechanics unveiled the new technology at the 2007 Korea Electronics Show at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.

So get ready for the water powered mobile phones, there might be a time in the future where you say my phone is running out of water instead of low battery!