photo by Martin Lamonica/CNET News
Medis Technologies recently revealed working units of the 24-7 Power Pack, the world’s first portable fuel cell charger. The pint-sized powerhouse uses “liquid borohydride technology” to give an ipod an extra 60-80 hours of life. Best of all, the Power Pack is recyclable and contains no environmentally hazardous chemicals.
Although today’s gadgets rarely rely on disposable alkaline batteries, their rechargeable lithium counterparts are subject to draining their charge at the worst possible moment. Who hasn’t hit the road only to wind up with a bricked cell phone or laptop because they forgot to bring a wall wart?
The Medis Power pack aims to solve these energy woes with a portable power solution that uses fuel cell technology. The kit comes with a charger, adapters, and a fuel cell composed of recyclable PET. Once the cell is used, it can be recycled by shipping it to one of Medis’ authorized recycling centers. Best Buy recently picked up the Power Pack for its online store, where it will soon be available for about $40.
Via VaroLogic
Tip via Jessica Loria
At first I didn\’t get it. I mean how could a web site promote this device as green technology? Then I realized this is probably just a paid marketing site for companies to advertize anything as long as they call it green!
Well they have this comment section so here is my two cents. Let\’s compare these supposed miracle first of a kind \”chargers\” vs. rechargeable batteries.
The company claims it will put out 1 watt [which by the way is not enough to provide enough juice to make a cell phone call from a phone with a dead battery] Further, independent tests show that you will be lucky to get half of that power. In addition, you will be lucky if the device stays operable even half as long as the manufacturer claims. So right off the bat the public is not getting their money\’s worth thus promoting excessive consumption. Green? I think not.
Now the Manufacturer has added a battery to it to boost up the specs. Yes, You read that correctly. It not only uses a battery to perform but it uses a battery 4 or 5 times larger than original to allow it to charge most devices.
Interesting No? A device touted to replace batteries in order to save our planet that uses batteries with the same chemicals in them that ..well that batteries use because it is a battery.
If that where not enough, it is said to be \”Green\”. OK, we all know that these will end up in land fills. How many pay to send their batteries back to Eveready? So not only will we be throwing away a battery when this is depleted, we will be throwing away KOH (potassium Hydroxide) and NaBH4 (Sodium Borohydride) to boot. Green? Keep reading.
The device not only contains lots more heavy metals than lithium batteries, this device is huge! About 10 to 20 times the size of a typical cell phone battery with a huge amount of plastic and other materials with half lives of thousands of years as well. Green? Not yet.
Now let\’s discuss the cost to the environment with regard to the energy. You can buy one of these from $20.00 to $40.00 that decays over a year and actually at a much faster pace than Lithium batteries will without any use. It just may not work at all when you go to use it. It has to be \”activated\” and once activated, it will only last MAYBE 3 months per the manufacturer. Wasted energy. Can our environment afford that?
Now compare purchasing an extra battery for your phone. The same battery is used thousands of times since it is rechargeable and all for a one time price of $10.00 to $20.00. It is small and can be recharged for pennies from the wall socket many times. Yet, we are being asked to pay $20.00 to $40.00 for a single cell phone charge by purchasing this Medis device?
The battery can also be recycled if we would only actually drop them in the recycle bins.
Green? No Sir. The author does not promote and futher a clean earth by accepting what the maker of this product says at their word without any investigation of the most elementary kind.
This device is like selling mercury as a new baby toy…as long as we put a label on it that says \”Green\”.
If this is our \”Green\” future?,.. well sorry kids!