Apple’s grand plans of producing green smartphones and laptops could mean a cleaner and a healthier environment.
Apple has always been good for you and now, it promises to be good for planet earth. Apple will produce green smartphones and laptops in the future, if the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office likes its idea. Apple plans to use Hydrogen-powered fuel cells to make smartphones and laptops which it claims, can go on for days without any power replenishment. This eliminates the need to have conventional batteries in electronic devices. The initiative promises to not only reduce a lot of burden on non-renewable resources but also makes electronic devices a lot lighter.
Apple’s Plan
Apple intends to completely do away with conventional batteries, used so far in smartphones and laptops and replace them with hydrogen-powered fuel cells. Accordingly, Apple has submitted a couple of patents with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for approval. The motivation, as stated in the patent filings, seems to be an intention to act more responsibly towards environment and public health. According to Apple, “Our country’s continuing reliance on fossil fuels has forced our government to maintain complicated political and military relationships with unstable governments in the Middle East, and has also exposed our coastlines and our citizens to the associated hazards of offshore drilling. These problems have led to an increasing awareness and desire on the part of consumers to promote and use renewable energy sources.”
Possible Implications of Apple’s Plan
Hydrogen fuel cells can generate water and electrical energy and the latter is essential for electronic devices. Hydrogen fuel cells are proven non-pollutants, unlike fossil fuels. Therefore, a non-reliance on conventional power sources will mean that Apple’s products will ensure a cleaner and a healthier environment. You would not need to charge your smartphone or laptop for a long time, unlike what you do now. Quite naturally, the more you charge your electronic device, the more you deplete energy which come at a cost. Also, hydrogen fuel cell powered electronic devices will be a lot lighter than their predecessors, as they will be without batteries.
Obstacles to Apple’s Ambitions
Things would not be easy, even with an approval from U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Hydrogen fuel cells are generally known to be expensive and that is surely going to push up the prices of the products. Also, in an economy which is slowly waking up to the idea of hydrogen fuel, suitable infrastructure and maintainability of hydrogen fuel cells are going to be large issues. So, while the intentions seem noble indeed, balancing the dual challenges of social responsibility and profitability is going to be real difficult.
Conclusion
So do we lose faith in Apple’s intentions? We need not for there is hope. Scientists and researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have devised a way to reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel cells. Platinum, present in hydrogen fuel cells, was mainly responsible for their prohibitive costs. Scientists would instead be using cheaper iron and cobalt catalysts to push down the cost. However, the workaround may still take some time to find acceptance. Therefore, it remains to be seen how Apple deals with the issue of expensive hydrogen fuel cells