Fuelcell-powered cellphones years away -Nokia

Helsinki, Oct 3 (Reuters) Consumers will still have to wait a few years before they can swap the batteries of their cellphones for more environment-friendly fuelcells, the world's top handset maker Nokia said on Tuesday.

''It is not a technology question, it is more like a supply-chain issue at the moment,'' Tapani Ryhanen, head of strategic research at Nokia Research Centre, said at a seminar celebrating the centre's 20th anniversary.

Ryhanen said the technology itself was already available and Nokia had tested it.

''A few years you would still need to wait,'' he said, adding that the industry had to sort out how to supply the fuel to consumers.

Fuell cells use a catalyst like platinum to start a electrochemical process to generates electricity from making oxygen react with a fuel such as hydrogen, ethanol or methanol.

REUTERS KR HS1745