New Applications for Fuel Cells Considered

Consumers soon may be able to provide emergency power for their home office equipment with a portable fuel-cell unit to be marketed by Coleman Inc., while General Motors Corp. says it is looking at cellular communications, not cars, as the likely first commercial application of its fuel cell.

The auto giant said Nextel Communications Inc. has agreed to partner with a GM alliance to field-test a refrigerator-sized backup power unit for cellular transmission towers threatened by frequent power outages.

The unit, which uses a fuel cell developed by GM, can provide up to two hours of power using hydrogen produced on site in a low-temperature electrolizer that draws the gas out of water.

Costs were not disclosed, but a Nextel spokesman said the company has as many as 75 towers in California alone that could benefit from the system.

Separately, fuel-cell maker Ballard Power Systems Inc. said it has supplied miniature cells to Coleman and that the consumer goods company will begin retail sales in November of a small system that uses replaceable canisters of hydrogen to generate emergency power for homes.

Pricing has not been disclosed. The unit will be “about the size of two loaves of bread,” said John Harris, Ballard’s vice president of marketing.