When I last wrote on this topic, both DoCoMo and KDDI had shown prototype cell phone batteries based on liquid methanol. After the Dell battery recall and the new liquids prohibition on commercial aircraft, it's hard to see how anything like that could succeed. But as this August 30th story and this July press release show, NTT DoCoMo is taking the long view and continuing to work on the technology.
Now their target is a portable recharger, not a battery replacement.
Clearly a get-started approach, as few will want to carry yet another device, even if it's allowed on airplanes.
Other updates: Perhaps in response to issues with methanol on airplanes (even before August 9th), the most recent technology appears to be based on a solid fuel and catalyst mixture which produces hydrogen when water is added. The hydrogen is then combined with oxygen from the atmosphere using conventional polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology to produce electricity (and more water).
None of the press information or news reports say what the fuel-catalyst mixture is. DoCoMo's partner is now Aquafairy, an eleven person company incorporated June 30, 2006, for which very little additional information is available, in English or Japanese.
I'm glad to see portable fuel cell efforts continue and I do expect this technology will power portable devices, someday. But, at a guess, we'll be in the demo &/or prototype stage for a few more years.
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