Hydrogen-powered cars may not seem to be too much of a stretch of the imagination these days, with the advent of environment-friendly automobiles such as the Lifecar. But how about hydrogen-powered...mobile phones? It's possible, and STMicroelectronics is already developing a miniature hydrogen fuel cell designed to power up mobile devices.

STMicroelectronics's mobile hydrogen fuel cell is being developed as part of a hybrid power system for mobile phones. The phones will still use conventional batteries, but hydrogen fuel cells will augment their power supply by letting the devices tap into the hydrogen once their main source of power runs out.

The mobile hydrogen cell can be considered as a miniature powerhouse: it's roughly the size of a cigarette lighter, with cartridges produced by pen manufacturer Bic.

When will we see hybrid hydrogen mobile phones, then? It won't be anytime soon, with this product having an estimated street date of early 2010.