On Thursday, MTI Micro and NeoSolar announced their plans of building fuel cell-powered ultra-mobile PCs.

The collaboration will result in a series of digital devices, working on MTI Micro's Mobion fuel cell technology; the thing that makes MTI special is what it uses as fuel, namely liquid methanol cartridges (direct methanol fuel cell - DMFC). The obvious advantages of using liquid fuel consist in easy transportation and manageable storing, as well as effortless and quick replenishment. Furthermore, fuel cells are considered to be a much more environment-friendly way to power up electronics than regular batteries.

According to Peng Lim, MTI Micro CEO, the company will initially put all its efforts into ultra mobile PCs and later on expand to other types of products.

Along the years, other companies have tried to come up with such technology and although several prototypes have been brought forward, none managed to reach the market.

MTI has already made a demonstration this year, with a cell phone and a digital camera featuring an embedded DMFC. It seems the demo was quite convincing as the company has already signed deals with Samsung Electronics (for mobile phone fuel cells) and a large but still unnamed Japanese company (for digital camera fuel cells).