Can I run my MP3 player on methanol?

It's a music lover's worst nightmare. Packing up for a long
plane ride, you make sure everything's there. 80 GB MP3
player with thousands of songs: check. Headphones: check. All
of your new music has been transferred over to the MP3 player
which should provide you with hours of aural bliss and keep
any noisy passengers from disturbing what should be
a comfortable, far-away reverie.

After storing away your luggage and settling into your seat,
you clap on your headphones, plug them into the MP3 player,
press the play button, and … nothing happens. Complete
silence. Nothing but the dull drone of the airplane's
engines. Unfortunately, you forgot to charge your MP3 player
before leaving, and now you're stuck with nothing to do but
stare at the seat back in front of you or watch a heavily
edited in-flight movie.

MP3 owners have faced the low battery issue countless times.
Most MP3 players use lithium-ion batteries for their source
of power -- not only are they lightweight, they're also cheap
to produce and can withstand damage better than other types
of batteries.

But the downside of a lithium-ion battery is its lifespan.
The amount of power one can provide typically decreases the
more a device is used. Anyone who's owned a laptop or an MP3
player for a few years can attest to this, as he or she has
to plug in more often to keep the device running.

­In the meantime, people are devising all sort of ways, valid
or not, to increase the lives of their gadget's batteries.
One video on YouTube claims it's possible to power an iPod by
using an onion doused in Gatorade. Toshiba, on the other
hand, is looking into a slightly more marketable solution --
methanol. Although methanol has several different uses, you
may have heard it mentioned in the same breath as fuel cells.
Fuel cell technology is one of the electric power options
that governments and businesses are trying to develop for the
auto industry. Does Toshiba's fuel cell for MP3 players work
at all like one for a car? How could methanol power an MP3
player, and for how long? And is it safe?

Methanol Fuel Cells and Portable Electronics

Methanol has a wide variety of uses. Its main use is as
an industrial solvent for inks, resins, adhesives and dyes --
you'll find it in products like household cleaners,
insecticides and paint thinners and removers. It's also used
as an antifreezing agent for both car radiators and gasoline,
and even as an alternative to gas for cars. While it can be
man-made, methanol is also naturally emitted by volcanic
processes, plants, microbes, insects and decomposing
biological waste like sewage.

There are several different types of fuel cell technologies.
At their most basic, fuel cells are devices that convert the
chemical energy of a fuel -- such as hydrogen, gasoline or
methanol -- and air into electricity. Fuel cells work like
batteries, but unlike batteries they don't need to be
recharged and they last far longer. The only byproducts of
a methanol fuel cell's reaction are electricity, water and
a small amount of carbon dioxide [source: Sistek].

The type of fuel cell some hope will eventually replace the
internal combustion car engine is the Proton Exchange
Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), which uses hydrogen for power;
however, Toshiba and other technology companies are looking
into a slightly different form, one more suitable for MP3
players and other mobile devices -- Direct Methanol Fuel
Cells (DMFC). In liquid form, methanol (CH3OH) reacts with
water (H2O) to create CO2, hydrogen ions and electrons. The
hydrogen ions travel through a thin plastic film polymer and
react with oxygen, creating electricity.

Toshiba originally began developing their DMFC as a small
cartridge that contains a "passive" supply of methanol in
a highly concentrated form. There are actually two different
prototypes they've announced in the past -- one meant for
flash memory-based MP3 players and another for players with
hard disk drives. The first, a 100-milliwatt version, is
about the size of a pack of gum; it doesn't have to be too
large because flash memory-based MP3 players are smaller and
require less power. It still packs a punch, though, since
it's designed to provide about 35 hours on a single charge.
On the other hand, the 300-milliwatt version meant for
hard-disk MP3 devices is a little bigger -- it's about the
size of a pack of playing cards -- and can power an MP3
player for 60 hours on one charge.

It's unclear whether or not users would refill an empty
methanol fuel cell or if they would use disposable
cartridges. And although these models haven't left the
laboratory, Toshiba appears to be carefully honing its
products: The company introduced a prototype of a small
headphone and MP3 player combination that can run for about
10 hours using a methanol fuel cell. Despite fears associated
with methanol -- inhalation or ingestion of the substance can
cause blurred vision and lead to blindness, while contact
with the skin can cause mild dermatitis, or inflammation of
the skin -- reports assure that DMFC technology is designed
to be perfectly safe.