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Alcohol-powered Fuel Cells

Posted by Hemos on from the time-to-booze-up-the-laptop dept.

prostoalex writes "Researchers have developed a fuel cell that can be recharged with few milliliters of alcohol. MIT's Tech Review quotes the researchers claiming that those 'cells could eventually be used as a replacement for any rechargeable power source, including laptop and PDA batteries'. I suppose the scientists still have to explain all those bills from liquour store that say 'research material' on them."

2 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Stewardess, more power over here, please! by Hanashi · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Finally! Now I can leave my notebook's airline power adapter at home and just use those tiny bottles of cheap vodka. A measly $5 per recharge sounds fine to me.

    Seriously, though. This could be good news for the cereal grain industry. Corn is abundant, cheap and easy to ferment. I wonder how the efficienccy of this technique will compare to that of regular batteries and more "traditional" hydrogen fuel cells?

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  2. Lack of details, GRRRRR... by AB3A · · Score: 3, Insightful
    1) What kind of alcohol?

    2) What "poisons" this fuel cell? Will it survive a bit of water?

    3) What are the by-products of power generation? Can it be used to store energy too?

    4) How many watts per kg or liter?

    Sheesh. And it's only been tested for a few months. I'll bet there are at least a few unknowns yet to be discovered. Nontheless, the concept is interesting. The question is whether this can become a practical commercial device. You can't even begin to guess with shoddy reporting like this...


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