New Method To Generate Electricity from Water

spaceling writes "The BBC reports reporting on research published in the Institute of Physics Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering of the first new method of generating electricity in over 150 years. Larry Kostiuk and Daniel Kwok 'created a glass block, two centimetres in diameter and three millimetres thick, containing about 400,000 to 500,000 individual channels...[and] generated about 10 volts with a current of around a milliamp. This allowed the team to successfully power a lightbulb.'" This has also been covered all over the place.

Comments

Sounds like a van der Graaf

[panurge]

In fact, I've seen van der Graafs that work by using a flow of dielectric fluid rather than the rubber belt of the school versions. Admittedly they generate megavolts rather than volts - but isn't the basic method the same? i.e. charge separation.

Also, the electricity isn't generated from the water. It's generated using the kinetic energy of flowing water - just like a turbine or waterwheel, and something needs to produce the kinetic energy in the first place...excuse me while I go and check my cold fusion plant, the room temperature seems a bit low.

Re:So now we end up fighting wars over water?

[Gorny]

There are lot of (more or less potential violent) wars over water. Turkey has build waterpowered electricity plants which use so much water that other surrounding countries saw their waterlevels drop. There are more examples besides this one from the Tigris: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/943002.stm

Yes.. I think it's entirely possible to have real wars in the future not to establisch democracy in a country, or to expand the territory of the aggressor but entirely focussed on the water.

Re:So now we end up fighting wars over water?

[Dun Malg]

There are lot of (more or less potential violent) wars over water.

You make a very important point. Heck, look at how we fight over water in the US. We don't generally have "shootin' wars" over it anymore, but there's certainly a lot of acrimony. The various states arguing over how much water they can keep behind the dams and how much they can take out for irrigation on the Colorado river, for example. The California aqueduct taking most of the water in the Owens valley area and piping it down to Los Angeles caused a fair amount of strife too. I was driving around northern Nevada once about 10 years ago and I saw signs in store windows that said "Don't let Las Vegas take our water". Access to fresh water has been a central issue to civilization for eons. Heck, the first thing those monkey dudes in the beginning of "2001: A Space Oddessey" did after seeing the monolith and "gettin' wise" was grab bludgeons and chase off those other monkey dudes from the watering hole. Just a movie, but it makes an important point.

Personal electric generation.... My shoes!

[Wubby]

Why not put a couple pumps (no pun intended) in the soles of shoes? As I walk around I could generate the power I need to recharge my phone/low power laptop.

Hey, maybe it would force me to exercise more.

*ring ring*
ME: Hey... Bob... what's... up....[huff puff]
BOB: Dude, why are you outta breath?
ME: Phone... dying... needed... recharge...[cough]

Kids wanna play thier Gameboy... make 'em walk the dog! (hmm, mini paw sized pumps)

Re:A hype?

[GospelHead821]

According to the paper, itself, they seem to be interested more in powering MEMS. I can imagine many situations in which a chip designed to analyze a fluid wouldn't require a battery because the chip's sensors will be powered by electricity generated as the pressurized fluid traverses an "electrokinetic microchannel battery" at the front end of the chip. If they can increase the efficiency and insure that a thumb-operated pump (like the primer on your lawnmower) would provide sufficient pressure to drive the battery, this could be a really useful innovation.