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Apple Working to Develop Fuel Cell Powered MacBooks

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Wouldn’t you like to be able to take your laptop anywhere with you without the fear of forgetting the charger at home? Thanks to the Apple folks currently working to acquire patents for hydrogen fuel cells, it will soon be possible to go on and on without resorting to a battery change or charge.

More precisely, Apple patent applications were recently published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office entitled “Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device” and “Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computing Device.”

Or, as Steve would have said “Boy, and have we patented it!”

The result? An extension of the battery’s running time to days or even weeks before another recharge is needed. And that is not all: the general lifespan of the battery will be lengthened, compared to regular laptop batteries.

Now the bad news about these fuel cells is that they are rather pricey and, most of all, too large to conveniently fit in a device that size. Apple’s solution to this is to come up with a fuel cell system made up of a fuel cell stack and a controller. A rechargeable battery within this system receives the fuel and transforms it into electricity, while the controller checks this entire process.

I bet you don’t really wonder why Apple went to these lengths to patent this, since the advantages speak for themselves. However, the official explanation is that the country is currently too dependent on foreign fossil fuels, which may pose problems in the future, not to mention the side effects of offshore drilling.

No matter the reason, the consumer can only benefit from such technology, while staying environmentally-conscious all the way.

[via Inhabitat]

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