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Batteries Powered by Leftover Food
Lazyhound writes "Technologists at the University of the West of England in Bristol have come up with a cheap, organic battery that can run on household leftovers, and be manufactured for just £10." There's also a New Scientist article. The New Scientist would like to point out that they broke the story, and the BBC followed up.
What's the price of 50g. of sugar?
I can nip down the supermarket and buy a bag of sugar for 54p (0.54GBP). This bag contains 1Kg of sugar. So 50g. of sugar would cost under 3p.
So threepence worth of sugar would keep my 40 watt light bulb on for eight hours.
If electricty is charged at 6p per Kw/h (can't remember exactly, not got electricity bill on me) then the cost of lighting that 40w bulb is just under 2p. So there's not a lot in it!
However this is mere nitpicking and missing the point entirely. At the moment they're using sugar in the prototype. They intend to refine the bio-generator to use first carrots rather than pure sugar, and move on household waste. STUFF YOU THROW AWAY and is therefore worthless. At that point, the running cost is effectively zero.
So not only would this reduce the amount of rubbish thrown away by the average household, but it also reduces environmental damage done by power generation.
Just don't throw your old antibiotics in it!
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