A Pollution-Free Power Plant

- Micro Fuel Cell, a Power Plant in the Palm of my Hand!

□ Recently, technical developments and patent applications for fuel cells (as part of the efforts to develop an environment-friendly energy cell) are brisk. This is due to the crisis of global climatic change (and not just regional environmental problems) caused by the discharge of greenhouse gas and noxious gas from the use of fossil fuel.


□ A fuel cell is an electricity-generating cell that generates direct current by converting a chemical reaction energy between fuels (such as hydrogen and methanol with oxygen as an oxidizer) directly to electrical energy.
Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) are most frequently used for micro fuel cells.


□ Micro fuel cells are expected to bring a considerable change especially into the user environment of portable telecommunication products: for example, they can be used to enable a cellular phone to work for a month or longer without recharging, and to extend the life of laptop computers with a simple exchange of fuel cartridges.
In addition, they have a wide range of uses for products such as beepers, digital camcorder/cameras, hearing aids, electronic door locks, and portable power supply.



□ Patent applications for micro fuel cells are on the sharp rise with an annual average rate of 52.1% during the last five years(2000-2004),
The year of 2004 witnessed a rapid increase by 384% compared with the previous year.


□ Among the total of 320 applications during the last 10 years, Korean applications stood at 252 cases(78.8%), with Samsung SDI(155 cases) as the first, which was followed by LG Electronics(10 cases).
Foreign applications chiefly by the Japanese were 68 cases(21.2%), with Matsushita Electricity(31 cases) as the first, which was followed by Sanyo Electricity(5 cases).
This shows that Korean enterprises are more active in Korea for the technical developments and patent applications for micro fuel cell.


□ According to the classification of the applications by the fields of technology, there were 92 applications for micro fuel cell system(28.8%), 63 applications for membrane and electrode assembly(MEA)(19.7%), 48 applications for polymer electrolyte membrane(15%), 22 applications for separators(6.9%), 20 applications for stacks(6.2%), 20 applications for fuel processors(6.2%), 17 applications for catalysts(5.3%), 9 applications for balance of plant(BOP)(2.8%), 5 applications for fuel lines(1.6%), and 24 other applications(7.5%).


□ As an environment-friendly technology of the growing power industry of the next generation, the micro fuel cell is expected to gain a strong international competitiveness through the efficient role division between the government and business enterprises, and through heavy investment in research and development.
This expectation seems reasonable given the fact that the government is taking the initiative of the project of technical development and infrastructure building, and that the overall standard of Korea's technology is close to that of developed countries.




(Source: KIPO press material, Date: September 2, 2005)