Scientists in both the United States and France have made major breakthroughs in miniature fuel cells, making the possible the replacement of battery-powered appliances with fuel cell powered devices in the near future.

The scientists in the United States have created a fuel cell that is three millimeters in diameter that produces 1 milliampere at 1 millivolt of tension. It does so with very few parts. A reservoir of water is separated from a metal hydride solution by a porous membrane. Tension in the water allows it to seep through the membrane, where it reacts with the metal hydride solution to form hydrogen. The release of hydrogen both increases the pressure in that part of the fuel cell enough to stop the water from seeping through the membrane and also reacts with electrodes to generate the actual energy. Because it uses water tension rather than gravity, the fuel cell can face any direction. This feature is important for use in portable electronic devices that might be rotated in any direction.

French scientists have created a fuel cell three times as big as the one created by the U.S. scientists, and it produces much more power. It uses methanol rather than metal hydride, and the methanol must be added to the cell from an external source. Both the methanol fuel cell and the water fuel cell are great strides toward a fuel-cell-powered reality.