As reported by Yahoo! News, Canon Inc. on Tuesday said that they have developed a tiny fuel cells that can start replacing conventional batteries to power some of their digital cameras and printers in the next three years. Currently, several other companies; like Toshiba Corp., NEC Corp., and Hitachi Ltd.; are also working on the development and commercialization of fuel-cell batteries for the next-generation of consumer electronics.

Fuel-cell technology mixes hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity and is considered a promising replacement for today’s lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used to power a range of mobile products from notebook PCs to mobile phones.

There are already some news regarding fuel-cell device prototypes, such as mobile phone and MP3 player. But I think fuel-cell powered printer idea from Canon is somewhat new. Also, Canon will be working on a fuel cell system that supplies hydrogen directly from a refillable cartridge. Not like other development that focus on devices that derive hydrogen from methanol. The result, Canon’s system (hopefully) would be more eco-friendly, because fuel cells that extract hydrogen from methanol emit some carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Fuel cells that use only hydrogen do not.

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