Sugar-powered fuel cell could run 3-4 times longer than lithium ion cells

[PhotonBoy]

http://www.slu.edu/x14605.xml

March 24, 2007 - "Juicing up your cell phone or iPod may take on a whole new meaning in the future. Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on virtually any sugar source - from soft drinks to tree sap - and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries, they say.

For consumers, that could mean significantly longer time to talk and play music between charges. The new battery, which is also biodegradable, could eventually replace lithium ion batteries in many portable electronic applications, including computers, the scientists say. Their findings were described today at the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago...."

 

[FRANKVZ]

Sweet! :thumbsup:

 

[cutlerylover]

Sweet! :thumbsup:

pun intended? :thinking:

 

[Lightcrazycanuck]

Interesting.:naughty:

 

[TorchBoy]

Sweet! :thumbsup:

Didn't see that one coming. :lolsign:

How come sugar has so much more energy that lithium cells? Simply because it has more bonds?

 

[Led_Blind]

What is the current carring capacity?

 

[LuxLuthor]

I suspect in 5-10 years people will laugh at the batteries we are using today.

 

[PhotonBoy]

What is the current carring capacity?

I'm not sure, but if it's enough to run a cell phone, it should be enough for a lot of consumer devices.

I could see it running a flash-disk based energy-efficient laptop. There's a $200 laptop coming out soon that can be powered using a hand crank. Low output flashlights would be no problem.

Recyclable is good; I hate to see mercury, lithium and other strange metals and contaminants being dumped into the environment.

 

[VidPro]

enzymes and sugar = Alcohol = energy = fuel + metal plates in fuel cell
soo is this thing a minature distillary
if your not charging your cell phone, you can make your juice into Juice

to successfully run a handheld calculator.
woopie , i have a handheld calculator here that runs off a 1/2 postage stamp sized solar cell, under room lighting, Forever.


Ideally, these rechargers would contain special cartridges that are pre-filled with a sugar solution. These cartridges then could be replaced when they're used up.
auggg its a primary why not just add more sugar.

ya just know whats gonna happen dont ya, some lab tech is going to make an "ultimate Enzyme" that breaks down the sugar rapidly, and gets it to energy fast. then it will spill out at the lab, and the whole world will get converted in 30 days , it will start converting humans into little batteries like "The Matrix"

 

[VidPro]

dont believe me, where do you think "superbugs" come from?

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2899
A battery that runs on scraps of food could fuel a battery providing electricity to top up your home's supply, say UK researchers.

Although such "microbial fuel cells" (MFCs) have been developed in the past, they have always proved extremely inefficient and expensive. Now Chris Melhuish and technologists at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol have come up with a simplified MFC that costs as little as £10 to make.

Right now, their fuel cell runs only on sugar cubes, since these produce almost no waste when broken down, but they aim to move on to carrot power. "It has to be able to use raw materials, rather than giving it a refined fuel," says Melhuish.

Inside the Walkman-sized battery, a colony of E. coli bacteria produce enzymes that break down carbohydrates, releasing hydrogen atoms. The cell also contains chemicals that drive a series of redox, or reduction and oxidation reactions, stripping electrons from the hydrogen atoms and delivering them steadily to the fuel cell's anode. This creates a voltage that can be used to power a circuit.

were all gonna die

 

[VidPro]

still not convinced? here it explains WHO they will get the power from
http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_pro.html?id=c373e9f8f30eca918f6a4fd8fe800100

It's a no-membraner. Conventional fuel cells are not suitable for devices such as pacemakers, biological tags, or blood glucose monitors, in part because it is impossible to store a sufficient amount of fuel in a very small reservoir. However, an assortment of potential fuel compounds can be found circulating in the bloodstream (or sap) of the animal, human, or plant host.

and just for more science

The carbon fiber electrodes in Mano's fuel cell are coated with redox polymer films containing the reducing and oxidizing agents. The polymer acts as an electrical connection between the electrolyte solution and the surface of the carbon fiber. At the anode surface, glucose oxidase extracts electrons from glucose in solution, forming gluconolactone in the process. The cathode uses bilirubin oxidase to reduce adsorbed oxygen gas, forming water as a byproduct. (still needs an anode and a cathode looks like)

The fuel cell can generate 1–2 μW of power continuously for 1 week at 37 °C and 0.52 V, transporting 2 orders of magnitude more charge than a zinc fiber battery of similar dimensions could carry at 100% current efficiency.

holy cow, an entire pico watt, bet that'll get your led humming.

 

[VidPro]

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:i-e22LkgbYQJ:www.geobacter.org/press/2003-09-18-nytimes.pdf+sugar+fuel+cell&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&lr=lang_en

Many microbial fuel cells increase their efficiency by using a special compound to enter the organism, collecting the electrons that accumulate and carting them off to an electrode. Suchmediators must typically be replenished. "But Dr. Lovley's bug does the work all by itself," Dr.Palmore said, "without the intermediate components we all put in to facilitate electron transfer."Dr. Lovley's fuel cell has an electrode at either end. As it dines, the micro-organism converts theglucose solution into carbon dioxide, simultaneously generating electrons that are deposited onthe electrode and travel through an external circuit to the other electrode."We need only a small number of organisms because they gain energy and rapidly increase innumber," Dr. Lovley said. In his laboratory the organism flourished, colonizing the surface of the electrode and producing stable long-term power for up to 25 days. The current, about 200microamps per square meter, was modest, about enough to run a calculator.Minor technical improvements increased its output. "When we used graphite felt rather than rodsfor the electrodes, we had an approximate threefold increase in current,'' he said.R. ferrireducens belongs to a group of micro-organisms Dr. Lovley and colleagues havediscovered only in the past few years. Often described as iron-breathing, they use iron formetabolic energy just as humans use oxygen to burn food.


ohh cool, Bacteria batteries, it will be as popular as Glow in the dark plankton flashlights was.

and that is what i am saying, these Nutjobs will make up a "super organism" DNA altered that magically does a awesome conversion process, lives long and prospers well, and makes them lots of money. then there MIGHT be a ramification to it, that will make people happy to be alive without any power

bacteria battereis are not new, "Sugar" batteries are "NEWS" though. see how much better it sounds, on the press releace

 

[TorchBoy]

A µW is 1,000,000 pW.

 

[n3eg]

What was that old quote..."If life hands you lemons, you make batteries..."

 

[VidPro]

i just thought of one more thing, depending on the organism, before they alter its DNA, it probably would not enjoy high heats, or freezing temperatures.
of course once they change the DNA structure of the organism it will be able to live in a human , with a fever of a 106* temperature

 

[TorchBoy]

You know, a human body is a good place for a sugar battery to reside. It's a thermally controlled environment and if you feed the battery a continous supply of glucose-carrying blood it would quite happily continue producing power. But what to use it for? Pacemakers? Artificial ear and eye implants?

 

[LuxLuthor]

You know, a human body is a good place for a sugar battery to reside. It's a thermally controlled environment and if you feed the battery a continous supply of glucose-carrying blood it would quite happily continue producing power. But what to use it for? Pacemakers? Artificial ear and eye implants?

I'm sure the geeks at Pfizer are looking into a "Viagra Pump" that supercharges the pecker with some kind of "trigger" !!

 

[VidPro]

You know, a human body is a good place for a sugar battery to reside. It's a thermally controlled environment and if you feed the battery a continous supply of glucose-carrying blood it would quite happily continue producing power. But what to use it for? Pacemakers? Artificial ear and eye implants?

which brings up, if you use it in your emergency medical implant, and your body gets some other virus, that the body reacts to by adjusting body temperature to make virus uncomfortable , wouldn't that be a really bad time to have your emegency medical implant fail, because its biologicals , are effected in similarity to the virus your body is fighting.
of course with an extra dose of mind numbers, and cranking up the anti-rejection drugs, you will have a healthy 2 or 3 years left prolly long before the plates will need cleaning on the fuel cell.

 

[TorchBoy]

because its biologicals , are effected in similarity to the virus your body is fighting.

Good point - I forgot it was bacterially produced power. But you mean affected.