PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE POWERED BY PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELL

摘要

A portable electronic device (11) incorporates PEM fuel cells (33) and is designed to operate by the reaction of hydrogen from a hydride-containing fuel container (27) and oxygen from the air, while efficiently removing the product water by a novel water transportation system (41). Temperature is effectively controlled within a laptop PC by locating a plurality of fuel cell subunits as a generally planar array in the lid (15) of the PC adjacent a heat transfer plate (65). A particularly efficient resupply system is provided where an electrolyzer (71) supplies H2 at a pressure sufficient to continue to power the PC and simultaneously recharge an operatively-connected main hydride reservoir (27) and a second spare hydride reservoir (27) in the electrolyzer, each of which reservoirs has an associated reserve container (91).