Swedish company myFC AB have come up with a potentially revolutionary technology called the FuelCellSticker, which not only miniaturizes fuel cells, but makes them flexible. This allows for creative cell positioning and enables the creation of lighter and less boxy-looking gadgets.

Their FuelCellStickers are just 0.11-inches (3mm) thick and weigh a mere 0.2 ounces (5g), which easily bests the cells by Bic and can be stacked to provide as much power as is required. Each sticker by itself will provide 0.9W at 0.5V.

Fuel cells would supposedly offer greater operational time than can be achieved with today’s batteries. The band-aid-like stickers use hydrogen for fuel which, unfortunately, would seem to take us a step backwards to disposable power sources. Even if the stickers could be produced on the cheap, do we really want to be creating all this waste?

As impressive as fuel-cell tech is, my bets are on ultracapacitors as a next-gen power source. It is rapidly improving and decent setups are available now, as seen in yesterday’s ultracapacitor flashlight.

Sources:
myFC and CrunchGear