December 28th 2006 - by Dan Nicolae Alexa

Laptops are known to be extremely sensitive to energy consumption, so the race for finding an (almost) inexhaustible source of energy has always been a main preoccupation for laptop producers. Samsung seems to have taken the lead in this domain.

According to Akihabaranews, Samsung is already offering a high density storage system based on fuel cell technology. A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. It produces electricity from external supplies of fuel (on the anode side) and oxidant (on the cathode side). These react in the presence of an electrolyte. Generally, the reactants flow in and reaction products flow out while the electrolyte remains in the cell. Fuel cells can operate virtually continuously as long as the necessary flows are maintained.

Fuel cells differ from batteries in that they consume reactants, which must be replenished, while batteries store electrical energy chemically in a closed system. Additionally, while the electrodes within a battery react and change as a battery is charged or discharged, a fuel cell's electrodes are catalytic and relatively stable.

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