A PR just came out from NEAH Power. The company says it has developed a new type of fuel cell that does not require air.. hmm interesting. The company writes:

NEAH Power Systems, Inc. the Company developing fuel cells for the military and portable electronic devices, announced today it has successfully demonstrated a new type of low cost, high reliability and power, liquid electrolyte based direct methanol fuel cell that does not require air to operate. This is the first major innovation in fuel cell technology in over 20 years, where a repeatable, reliable non-PEM based system has been successfully introduced and demonstrated in sustained operation.

Apparently this type of fuel cell has applications in underwater environments and aerospace, gee where else is there no air? Maybe that type of application is more popular than one would originally think.  Certainly the military may have some use for it here. 

The company put out a little youtube video about their breakthrough.

So how does this related to fuel cell cars? It doesn’t as far as I can tell.  Why on earth would you want to have a car outfitted with a fuel cell that doesn’t require air? Hmmm.  I can’t think of any applications for one.

Certainly I am sure the military will come up with enough uses for this type of fuel cell. We will just have to wait and see what they come up with. So more progress on the fuel cell front.

Speaking of progress, NEAH power happens to be a stock that trades on the OTC BB penny stock market, and on this news today the stock shot up almost 300%.  So definitely some good progress there for a few lucky folk .  They made the statement in the youtube video that NEAH power systems could ‘very likely’ become the standard for fuel cell power systems or something to that effect.  Wow that sounds like quite  tall order.  Lets wish them well though.