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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..."

13 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Does this mean by immanis · · Score: 4, Funny

    In the future I can have a Night Train powered computer?

    WOW! It's just like me!

    Course, it would prolly crash a lot.

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  2. An excellent use for RFID! by Nathan+Ramella · · Score: 3, Funny
    You could tag each grape, and then monitor them for quality and choose only the best ones for making wine, while also making sure nobody removes them from the vine without authorization.

    You could then track the grape through the wine making process, and once they're crushed all down you could gather up all the RFID/computer chips at the bottom of the barrel, and go through the process again.

    Oh, no wait. That's a terrible idea.

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  3. Ironic timing by nelsonal · · Score: 2, Funny

    The expermentors tried grasshoppers and other insects, silly people should already have learned that it takes humans to produce any reasonable amount of energy.

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  4. But... by Sloppy · · Score: 2, Funny

    ..if we do that, might not the grapes eventually wise up and resent it? We should do something to distract the grapes -- somehow pull the wool over their eyes.

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  5. Enter the vineyard by ichimunki · · Score: 5, Funny

    But what happens when the grapes wake up to the reality that they're basically slaves, serving as batteries for human kind?

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    1. Re:Enter the vineyard by Sloppy · · Score: 4, Funny
      Nobody can be told what the vinyard is.

      "I should have photosynthesized the blue ray!"

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  6. Re:So in other words by L.+VeGas · · Score: 3, Funny

    Potato clocks, energy grapes. What next? Musical beans?

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  7. But by aufecht · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wait, I thought we were harvesting energy from Humans. I saw this movie, and....this is confusing.

  8. 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?

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  9. I've been doing this for years! by svenjob · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've been getting energy from grapes for years! And by energy, I mean drunk. ;)

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  10. so now... by mattsucks · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now your grapes can have bugs ... and bugs ...

  11. Must be sweet grapes by kawika · · Score: 5, Funny

    As the article mentions, the power generation depends on glucose. So if you're not getting enough power, it's just sour grapes.

  12. 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.