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Enzyme Bio-Battery Runs on Ethanol
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."
A beer-powered laptop!
include $sig;
1;
Batteries run off of vodka or gin?
"A charge for you, and a blast for me."
EFGearman
Atomic batteries to power! Turbines to speed!
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...
So that's why my display is so screwy - my laptop is drunk.....
RoseColor red={0, 0xffff, 0x0000, 0x0000};VioletColour blue={0, 0x0000, 0x0000, 0xffff};find / -name *mybase*|chown you
One of the major infirmities with the previously concieved designs was that I couldn't put it in my laptop and then take it on a plane - a plane being a major place where I'd like to have an unlimited (refillable) battery supply, as most planes don't offer 120v outlets for AC adapters. If this can overcome the safety risks involved with that venture, I'm sold.
:P
On another note, what else can it do?
Informatus Technologicus
Ethanol powered phones have been arround for decades.
I have talked to God on the porcelin telephone many times.
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
I also run off of Ethanol(everclear). I can only imagine the fun that would come out of this.... but seriously if these batteries were meant to be rechargeable how could this been done at all with current alcohol laws?
"yes I'd like to buy some everclear for my 'er laptop" *hic
Let us grow hemp and use it to make methanol. Then methanol will be cheaper.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
"We have actually run our cells off vodka and gin."
That's kept Liza Minelli running for close to sixty years, no reason it can't run my laptop for a few hours.
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Believe me, I'm as surprised by my comment as you are.
Novozymes Biotech in Davis, California is selectively breeding better enzymes for converting the cellulose in corn by-products to fermentable sugars. Who knows, maybe some day Kansas will power your calls.
First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
I don't care if they make batteries out of peanut butter. All I want to know is when do we get a wireless phone that only needs recharging once a month or less? Thanks, I'll take the answer off-line.
.nosig
Now excuse me, my fuel cell needs a shot and then it wants to go to the bathroom.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Evidently they prefer it over competing fuels. This seems like a bad move on NewScientist's part.
- what is the definition of simultanagnosia?! I've been meaning to look it up!
I really wonder how do something as sensitive as enzyme withstand the working temperature of a computer
There is a whole industry based on developing crosslinked enzyme crystals which are useful in industrial applications as catalysts. The crystals are literally poured out of plastic bottles as a powder and many can function in organic solvents (which would completely denature ordinary enzymes). The cross-linking holds together the overall tertiary structure of the enzyme, and the enzyme tends to hang onto water where it needs it to maintain secondary structure.
I don't know exactly how thermally stable they are, but I imagine they can take quite a bit. While the technology probably hasn't been applied to the enzymes in question I imgaine that if the money was there it could be done.
Ok, great, now how about Last Longer? Especially Laptop batteries, I can't seem to keep a charge on any of them. They all seem to degarde rather fast.
Also, nuclear power is incredibly expensive.
Other than that, good idea.
Man, it would be really great if you could walk into a grocerie store and buy 'Ethanol Packets' next to the Duracells, Energizers, and Ray-o-Vacs.
No, not to drink, you lushes. It would mean that there would be a new demand for vegetable crops, Corn in particular. While the DoA is one of the most corrupt branches of our government, one can't help but think that a new demand for corn in the form of a non-perishable liquid would cut the amount of money currently being used for subsidies.
An ethanol economy is not quite as desirable as a hyrdrogen economy, but it can still be very good.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
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.
Nuclear plants may be clean in responsible hands. Unfortunately Corporations and Governments often seem to prove themselves rather less than responsible and careful. Too bad really. There would be no need for constrictive environmental laws if people (individuals, Corporations and Governments) would be conscientious in their actions.
As for those batteries, I wonder what will be more efficient: My wood fired steam power plant (2kW, under construction) or farming some grain or plant that can be easily converted by fermentation to alcohol and putting the alcohol into one of those batterys. I'd be delighted to get 15% overall effiency from the steam system (80% if you count the waste heat heating the pool!).
90% of the wealth is in 2% of the pockets. Bummer to be in the majority.
i know huge amount of amount of electricity is required to extract hydrogen. But this can be easily generated using Nuclear Power Plants - a very clean source of electricity.
use hydrogen fuel cells in the cars, and you will take care of the pollution problem.
Actually, the best way of producing hydrogen isn't electrical. You catalyse a hydrocarbon into (usually) hydrogen and CO2. The CO2 production is very small and can be easily captured and recycled in processes that require CO2 as an input (eg photosynthesis).
In fact, that's precisely what this fuel cell does. I think they're calling it a battery because people think fuel cells are like four foot high things that cost thousands....
>>This is great news.
;)
Yeah, until you try to sneak it onto an expense report:
Taxi - $28.00
Meal @ airport - $11.45
Hotel - $85.00
Eight bottles of gin - $65.00
Something tell me that Wanda over in Accounting isn't goint to think that eight bottles of sauce looks quite so "great."
On the other hand, this may be the only case where conspicious consumption of alcohol is a justification for a promotion. "Gosh, boss, look at all these empty bottles! That's two more bottles than last week, don'cha think I deserve a raise?!?"
Now if only someone would invent edible CDs...
So here is the next question: a denaturing agent destroys the fuel cell. The (US) tax on non-denatured methanol is so excessive that it prohibits the use of these fuel cells in laptops, not to mention much better uses of the fuel cells, like clean running cars (where even with a road tax the tax would be much lower). So the question is, do we change the law to support this new clean technology, or do we keep an aribratary tax that is both about raising excessive revenue as well as about telling people how to live their lives? And if we get rid of a tax on alcohol to permit these fuel cells, what other rediculous law can replace it to show people that big brother can run their lives better than they can? And can I get laptop methanol without paying a road tax on it? And do methanol and programming really mix?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Bender the robot uses Ethanol for power. A couple bottles of 'Old Fortran' kept him going for hours.
Now if I could only run my cell phone off of cigarettes, we could re-purpose the entire vice industry. We all know how useful hemp is too...
Soylent Battery is made from people! It's PEOPLE!!! /PhilHartman
All non-regulated (as in BATF) ethanol is required by law to be denatured. There are two types of denaturing: complete and specical. Complete adds 5% methanol, rendering the mixture toxic for human consumption. Special denaturing adds a non-toxic additive to render the alcohol undrinkable. This is often done by adding phenopthalein, which (aside from being a pH indicator) is a powerful laxative. Drinking it will cause "severe gastrointestinal distress". Most consumer applications (like rubbing alcohol) use special denaturing (so they don't kill stupid alcoholics).
Just FYI for anyone thinking about using your laptop as a wetbar.
But then the major problem is that the enzymes are replacable in the industrial container, but as I would believe, the battery would probably be disposible (i.e. you can't possibly add enzyme into it)
;-)
Moreover, the cross-linked enzyme crystals are able to withstand organic solvents but they are not that heat-stable - and if they are overheated, we can just hope that they don't go denatured, but their specificity to temperature will not change, i.e. Power goes down when temperature goes up or down, ooops....
There are other enzymes that tolerate boiling, and other extreme conditions. They are inactive in the severe condition, but have such a stable tertiary structure that they snap right back when put into the proper environment again. Mammalian RNAses are notorious for this.
From the article, however, the restriction of the enzymes to these pockets may help. For those that don't know, enzymes have a structure like a ribbon (or several ribbons) that fold back on themselevs in a particular way. By thermodynamics, as you add heat, you add entropy and the ribbon moves around too much to stay in its functional orientation.
Keeping the enzyme in a small, restrictive pocket may restrict its random motion enough to help keep the ribbon from unfolding, allowing the enzyme to function at a higher temperature than it normally would.
There is a reason for everything. Sometimes that reason just sucks.
Stick one of these in a robot and voila: Bender!
In fact, the article from the New Scientist needs to be completed by reading this press release from the American Chemical Society. You also can read this article from Boston.com to get more information.
Yes, as I'm also involved in biochemistry/mol. genetics, there are Heat-stable enzymes, but remember, field-conditions are not like lab conditions, where we can add as much and replace as much enzyme as we want, and it's not that the enzyme is stop then it's stopped.
;-)
When it comes to laptop, we need a stable power supply.. who wants a supply that only work in 20oC < x < 40oC (the actual margin may well be stricter)...
but a Li-Ion backup will fix this...wait.. isn't that a big weight added on it.. oh...
Erm, an enzyme is just a huge molecule, isn't it? It isn't alive in any sense. Don't worry, you won't be oppressing any bacteria or anything -- never mind the millions of 'em each of us slaughter daily by breathing. :)
Methanol is simply not that toxic. If you drink large quanities (ie, ounces), it causes a condition called acidosis, which leads to blindness and death (among other things). Trace amounts are easily eliminated from the body. If you don't drink it or bathe in it, you will be fine.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Those function nicely up to the temperature of boiling mud.
You obviously haven't tried a P4 laptop out recently.
THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!! eventually.
I remember reading a letter to a Victorian science journal complaining about the problem of horse waste in London's streets. The writer declared it an aesthetic and health menace. Fact is, the removal of horse poop was a HUGE problem in pre-automotive urban societies. So they polluted too, just in a relatively non-toxic way (in the sense that horse poop is biodegradable and doesn't give you cancer). I have no data on hand but I assume they solved the problem by having people who cleaned it up and sold it as fertilizer.
And if you think that car pollution "blows away in the wind", you've obviously never been to a REALLY big city with poor emission laws, like Mexico City...
Freedom: "I won't!"