Water battery set to shake up science world

[dArKeR]

London - The battery of the future could be powered by nothing but water, after a breakthrough by two Canadian scientists who have discovered an entirely new way to generate electricity - the first since 1839.

Initial applications could be cellphones and other electronic devices that now use rechargeable batteries, but Larry Kostiuk and Daniel Kwok, researchers at the University of Alberta who made the discovery, think that in time it could even be used for full-scale power generation.

When the "water battery" ran down, you would simply pump it up, perhaps with your hands. It would be non-polluting and non-toxic and completely portable. And it could be ready for commercial application before the end of the decade.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=31&art_id=vn20031020075715207C351005&set_id=1

Isn't it better to use our resources to build things which kill people better?

[Devils Advocate NZ]

1. What would happen if...

Every water pipe in a city was lined with such cells? Then, not only would you be supplying water to the city, you would be helping to supply power to it.

[La_Serpiente]

2. A german claimed he did this

during WW II...however, he was later proved as wrong by many scientists...and he was wrong. He said that he could make water the next fuel for cars. I wonder how they did it.

[papau]

3. Interesting stuff - paper URL below - problem is amount of power is small

http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0960-1317/13/6/320/

Electrokinetic microchannel battery by means of electrokinetic and microfluidic phenomena
Jun Yang, Fuzhi Lu, Larry W Kostiuk and Daniel Y Kwok
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G8, Canada

E-mail: [e-mail]
Received 23 April 2003, in final form 25 June 2003
Published 20 October 2003
Abstract. Pressure-driven flow in a microchannel induces a streaming current due to the presence of an electrical double layer in the interface between the electrolyte solution and channel wall. As the streaming current is of the order of a nano-amphere and is additive, we propose here a method to develop an electrokinetic battery consisting of an array of microchannels that converts the hydrostatic pressure of a liquid into electrical work. We have given oscillating analytical solutions by means of an electrical circuit analysis to model the multi-microchannel battery. Using superposition of the appropriate Fourier series, the derived analytical solutions are useful to predict the current when there is more general time-dependent flow through a microchannel array. To illustrate the idea, we have studied steady-state pressure-driven flow in micropore porous glass filter and compared the results with those predicted from our model. From a 30 cm hydrostatic pressure drop, an external current of 1–2 µA was obtained by means of water passing through the micropore porous glass filter. A larger current can be obtained by simply using a solution with higher salt concentration. This results in a new and potentially useful method of energy conversion by means of an array of microchannels.
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0960-1317/13/6/320/jm3620.pdf
URL: stacks.iop.org/0960-1317/13/963
DOI: 10.1088/0960-1317/13/6/320
PII: S0960-1317(03)62496-4
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0960-1317/13/6/320/jm3620.pdf

[elfin]

4. Maybe that's why the BFEE

wants to privatize water - nah, they are not THAT smart - just an unintended benefit of their grab at all natural resources.

[treepig]

5. hmm, nothing but water

and then the details . . . this device requires pressure-driven flow

by similar reasoning, an hydro-electric dam generates electricity with nothing by water.