First hydrogen-powered cars, and now hydrogen-powered mobile phones. Will these alternate sources of fuel and power eventually become mainstream someday? The possibility doesn't seem far off at this point, with STMicroelectronics working on a mobile phone power system that uses hydrogen as a reserve power supply. More in the full article.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics Vice-President Oh Yong-soo has revealed in the 2007 Korea Electronics Show that their company is currently developing in environmentally-friendly mobile phone handset which runs on pure water. The technology may be out in the market by 2010 if all goes well.

The secret behind the technology is the reaction of water and metals in the battery whenever the phone is  turned on. When activated, the microfuel cell gives off charges which are sufficient for most current handsets.

The stigma against alternative energy sources is the often-mediocre adequacy of electricity produced by cells with respect to their sizes. Samsung Electro-Mechanics answers that problem by showing that three watts can be generated with their model. That means it's actually twice as effective as current rechargeable power supplies.

"If the user uses the phone for four hours a day on average, they would have to change the hydrogen cartridge about every five days", says Oh. "Later handsets will be developed that don't need the hydrogen cartridges to be changed, and would only need to be filled with water."