Replacing the battery in portable electronics

Small batteries remain the only choice for consumer products that need up to 20 watts of power, for everything from toys to laptop computers. But batteries can be heavy and expensive, and they can expire without warning, requiring either replacement or recharging. A better alternative to batteries is fuel cells. The great advantage of using fuel cells is their ability to liberate electrical energy from the hydrogen atom. A fuel cell running on methanol could provide power up to 20 times longer than traditional nickel-cadmium batteries in a comparably sized package but at a lower price and for a small fraction of weight. Another benefit is that fuel cells do not require lengthy recharging; they can instead be replenished quickly by adding more fuel.