Discuss “CMU team joins methanol-powered fuel cell research”

Carnegie Mellon is joining the tide of research towards creating a society based on an alternative fuel source. Prashant Kumta, a professor of materials sciences and biomedical engineering, together with his graduate and post-doctoral team is developing tiny fuel cells that use methanol, which could one day provide the fuel for technological appliances. Unlike other alternative fuel research projects, this one focuses on methanol instead of expensive and unstable hydrogen, which is difficult to mass-produce and would be more difficult to integrate into society.

Portable electronic devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants and laptop computers, may well become the first widely used consumer items to take advantage of fuel cells....