ITM Power has been undergoing a very substantial price-rise over the last 2 months. The company's main asset appears to be its low cost electrolysers - costing around $164 kw - potentially - compared to a more typical $2000 off the shelf cost today.

So news today that they have just reached a memorandum of understanding with Hydrogen Engine Center merits close attention.

The deal is that ITM offers an assured supply of hydrogen using its (their words) "low cost" electrolyser technology and in exchange HEC will offer a complete system package using its engine technology. HEC - see website here designs, manufactures and distributes alternative-fueled internal combustion engines and power generation equipment.

You can see the potential synergy between both firms. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Hydrogenics (see charts, news and prices on our site) are currently down over 10% percent.

This is following a third quarter loss that widened year-over-year due to an impairment charge and weaker than expected revenues. An impairment charge by the way is an adjustment in the accounting value of an asset.

And what a big impairment it was - compared to the previous quarter, out of the net loss of $90.7 million $79.9 million is attributable to the impairment of intangible assets and goodwill.

Back in May, Samsung signed a deal with MTI to ultimately provide them with direct methanol micro fuel cells for their portable cell phones.

Today we hear that the first batch of prototypes have just been delivered to Samsung.

Forgive my scepticism, but I'm not convinced that there is a crisis in battery power for mobile/cell phones warranting micro fuel cells. If it runs out of power, charge it up. Big deal. The real challenge has to be with laptops. A laptop from 10 years ago could probably do an hour without power. Exactly the same today. Mobiles may be using more power, but I much prefer a big screen and keyboard to write anything serious.I'm just a bit concerned that the micro fuel cell industry is one that will stay at the prototype stage for a very long time.

Polyfuel revealed today that its new, ultra-thin membrane delivers over 40% more power than any fuel cell membrane previously available.

I've never seen micro fuel cell performance measured this way. I always thought the benchmark was how many watt hours can it deliver per kilo?

Hitherto, I understood the going rate was about 200 watt hours compared to 350 for lithium ion batteries and to put it all in perspective - 12 to 13,000 for petrol / gas.

Anyway, my point is this;

When are micro fuel cells going to hit the shops and will consumers like them?

There do seem to have been a lot of false dawns on this and I've yet to convinced of the market case. Throwaway batteries may be expensive but people still buy them. Rechargeable lithium ion seem to work ok because no one is ever that far from a power point. And most of all, liquids are now viewed with extreme suspicion by security guards, particularly at airport terminals . . .

Are micro fuelcells a solution in search of a problem?