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Energy from Grapes

Posted by michael on from the black-powder-and-alcohol dept.

shpoffo writes "This article at BetterHumans.com talks about harvesting energy from grapes - enough to power small microchips that could be implanted in/attached to plants for monitoring/etc. Seems like it's just a piece of the larger picture emerging..."

3 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So in other words by JUSTONEMORELATTE · · Score: 3, Informative

    this is just a glorified potato clock.
    That was my first impression too -- stick copper and zinc wires into a grape and you get electricity -- but that's not what they're doing. The article is light on details, but using a pair of carbon rods (insert Simpsons ref here) they're digesting glucose and collecting a few microwatts as a product.

    +1 Insightful? -1 wet-blanket-in-a-+1-Funny-thread?

    --

  2. Re:So in other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    from what i gathered they aren't actually using the carbon rods for digesting anything, but just as conductors for the transferring of electrons which takes places in the mitochondria

  3. Despite all the Matrix jokes... by Pall+Agamemnides · · Score: 2, Informative
    ... this article talks about using this sort of device in humans:

    Capable of producing only about 2.4 microwatts, the biofuel cell could be used to derive power from body fluids. For instance, it could also drive a tiny, autonomous sensor implanted near a wound after surgery to sense fluctuations in body temperature that might signal inflammation and infection.

    It seems like a useful application.