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Enzyme Bio-Battery Runs on Ethanol

Posted by chrisd on from the douglas-adams-was-right dept.

mpthompson writes "According to this article at New Scientist.com substantial progress is being made on enzyme-catalyzed ethanol based batteries to run cell phones and laptops. Such batteries promise to be cheaper, safer and less toxic than previously demonstrated methanol based fuel cells."

2 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. The major problem of the next year may well be... by ketamine-bp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Overheating.

    We all know that the enzymes hate heat - that is, they get denatured by heat. From what I feel on my lap when a laptop was put on it, I really wonder how do something as sensitive as enzyme withstand the working temperature of a computer (I guess that'll be one of the application, from the article).

    When you shrink that (from the article, they are going to.), the problem goes even more wild... ;-)

  2. Cost by Stripsurge · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, ethanol is cheap to make but expensive to buy. There'd have to some law changes to avoid having to pay the taxes associated with buying consumable alcohol. Using ethanol in the chem lab is pricy.