The migration to Lithium batteries from the other battery chemistries will be seen in all of the applications analyzed in recently-released fifth edition of Darnell’s “Power Packs for Portable Electronic Devices,” with the exception of cordless phones and power tools.

Changing battery chemistries will have (nominal) implications for makers of battery chargers for portable devices. A much more serious threat would be the replacement of batteries by fuel cells. Should fuel cells become widely incorporated into portable electronics, the market for battery chargers and external ac-dc power supplies could shrink significantly.

For the purposes of portable electronic devices, the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is the focus of research for most power pack companies, battery manufacturers and manufacturers of electronic devices. The purpose of the development of (DMFCs) is to comply with the demand for an uninterrupted power source within the portable electronics industry. Methanol fuel has several advantages including light-weight, small size, long duration, and easy fuel replenishment. DMFCs are best candidate for micro fuel cell applications, such as mobile phone handsets and personal computers. The technological and economic challenge is that fuel cells must compete on price, weight, reliability, availability and performance at the same time that more manufacturers are providing lithium batteries at reduced pricing. Also, the current advancements and improvements in power management and utilization may minimize the need for DMFCs

Although fuel cell technology has the potential to provide the portable power pack market with high energy densities, a cleaner environment, and longer and faster runtimes, their impact over the next several years may be minimal. Issues with size and cost will prevent them from having any significant impact on the commercial market until 2007. After their introduction, they are projected to grow from 1.0 million units in 2007 to 1.4 million units in 2010, a CAGR of 9.8%. This forecast could prove too conservative. If DMFC technology evolves and improves faster-than-anticipated, micro fuel cells could be adopted much more rapidly. The emergence of this important technology bears close monitoring as a potential threat not only to makers of Lithium batteries, but also a very real thread to makers of battery chargers and external ac-dc power supplies.

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