Hewlett-Packard Selling Off Fuel Cell Patents

Hewlett-Packard Selling Off Fuel Cell Patents

Fuel cells at HP? It was an idea the company had.

Who knew that Hewlett-Packard was into fuel cells?

Back in the earlier part of the decade, HP filed and obtained a number of patents for fuel cells, particularly proton exchange membrane fuel cells powered by hydrogen. Toshiba and other consumer electronics companies were doing the same then too.

The company, however, never pursued commercialization. But rather than just sitting on the intellectual property, it has decided to sell these patents off. The three patent lots -- which collectively contain 86 patents -- are being sold by WavePoint, and the minimum purchase price is $500,000 per lot.

Although the patents revolve around hydrogen fuel cells, the patents also relate to solid oxide fuel cells, according to Paul Cannata, director of business development at WavePoint. Bloom Energy, which came out of stealth last night on 60 Minutes, makes solid oxide fuel cells. HP's patents also potentially pertain to the design of portable fuel cells, a technology the military has examined for years as a way to provide troops in the field easier access to electricity. Fuel cells can also be viewed as energy storage devices. If there is a tank of the appropriate hydrocarbon handy, you can make electricity on demand.

The first lot consists of ...

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/hewlett-packard-selling-off-fuel-cell-patents

I'm sure OPEC will pay a premium to just sit on them.

They aren't an efficient means of recovering stored energy, which is their function.

Batteries look to be the ansswer for transportation; that pretty much makes fuel cells an "also ran".

In some instances, it may be preferable to recharging.

But the big deal was personal transportation and that ship has sailed. The rest of the market is mostly niche applications. If there is a real breakthrough on prices that niche market will expand, but the personal transportation field holds too many other obstacles.

Flow cell batteries use the same types of PEM stacks as fuel cells,
and IIRC even the new LSD NiMHs use PEMs of a sort.

So these patents could be relevant to a range of battery technologies.

In addition, while carbohydrate-based fuel cells generally tend not to
be reversible because they exhaust CO2, metal oxide fuel cells keep the
exhausted fuel on-board and can be reversed to recharge it.

Flow batteries and solid oxide fuel cells are essentially batteries which
can either be recharged as normal, or can be quick-recharged by swapping
the electrolyte/pellets. I wouldn't count them out.

I have to say it is refreshing to hear of patents being sold
instead of sat on. I'm so sick of the explanation for lingering
technology being "we have to wait till those patents expire"