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Batteries

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Rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries are the batteries most commonly used by handheld devices.

The life of this kind of battery is short, generally only a few hours of operating time. Battery technology will not significantly improve unless and until manufacturers begin to switch to fuel cells, which is unlikely in the near future.

A fuel cell operates like a battery, but unlike a battery, a fuel cell does not run down or require recharging and will continue to produce energy in the form of electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied.

Since the fuel cell relies on chemical energy rather than combustion, emissions would be much lower than emissions from the cleanest existing fuel combustion processes. ABI Research, a market research firm, predicts skyrocketing growth in the production of fuel cells for small devices during the next six years.