Instead of introducing battery charging technology, Apple is looking for hydrogen fuel cells in mobile devices, to achieve a somewhat longer battery life, but also to be more environmentally friendly.
Apple patents are always about technology or systems that use that technology and occasionally they are for devices like MacBook Pro. The newly released “Portable Computing Device for External Fuel Cell Control” is all of these, but it is also unusual how it solves environmental and political problems.
“Our country’s continued reliance on fossil fuels has forced our government to maintain complex political and military ties with volatile governments in the Middle East,” says Apple’s patent, which exposes our coastal areas and our citizens to offshore drilling-related hazards. “
“These issues have increased awareness and desire among consumers to promote and utilize renewable energy sources,” it continues. “As a result of this increased consumer awareness, electronics manufacturers are becoming more interested in developing renewable energy sources for their products and they are exploring renewable energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells.”
Apple is not saying that hydrogen fuel cells are the ideal battery for the future, but the technology gives an accurate list of what it calls “promise”.
“Hydrogen fuel cells have a lot of benefits,” Apple says. “Such fuel cells and allied fuels can achieve high levels of gravimetric power density, allowing continuous operation of portable electronic devices for days or weeks without refueling.”
Did you know that there must be a ‘but’ or we are already using these cells. “The design of affordable and affordable hydrogen fuel cell systems for use in [non] portable electronic devices is very challenging,” Apple explains.
This patent is for that. It’s about “designing a portable low-cost fuel cell system for a portable computing device” that converts fuel – hydrogen-based ones into electricity.
There are a number of solutions in research to generate electricity and access the device – including reference to a connector such as the MagSafe. In each case, the concept is “fuel cell stock … it converts a source fuel into electricity flow and waste product and produces electricity”.
The exact details of this fuel cell stock where the patent will change and how electricity will be generated. For example, an example might read: “Fuel cells may be proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells that use hydrogen as fuel.” Another suggests that the stock may be compatible with “solid oxide fuel cells, molten carbonate fuel cells, direct methanol fuel cells, alkali fuel cells and/or other types of fuel cells”.
Beyond the argument that such a working system can power a device for “days or weeks”, there is no further assessment of battery life. There are no indications as to how far Apple has come in implementing patented solutions.
Apple has been researching power and battery technologies for a long time. It previously applied for a patent on the use of hydrogen eight years ago.
The newly granted patent will be credited to six inventors, all of whom have previous patents in the same field, especially with fuel cell systems for smaller devices. In it Bradley L. Spare, Vijay M. Iyer, and Jean L. Lee; And Lee. They have been dubbed the “Fuel Cell System with Portable Computing Equipment”.
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