The company Tekion has announced that within a year they should have fuel cells commercially available for portable electronics. They have a working prototype running directly off of liquid formic acid, rather than gaseous H2. Formic acid is chemically similar to methanol, but is rather caustic stuff--many plants and animals use it as a stinging poison (ants, bees, and stinging nettle, to name a few)--but hopefully the safety issues can be addressed. Their formic acid fuel cell technology grew out of DARPA-funded research done at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
From the Tekion website:
"...engineers at our U.S. subsidiary, Renew Power, were able to integrate this fuel cell into a mobile phone utilizing the same space used for the battery. This was the worlds first fuel cell inside a mobile phone. These same engineers also made a direct formic acid fuel cell the size of a penny and demonstrated it powering a fan.... Unlike the hydrogen PEM system, these systems do not require bulky storage tanks, thus making the incorporation of micro fuel cell systems to power mobile electronic devices feasible.
