New Fuel Cell-Based Charger Uses Soil Microbes to Produce Energy
11 May 2011 | Alternative Energy | No Comments
A team of researchers from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, managed to develope a cellphone charger that uses the microbes in the soil to generate electricity. This fuel cell-based charger could be a real solution in third world countries, where people still lack power.
According to Dr. Aviva Presser Aiden, the mind behind this project, this new device is not very hard to build (it could be built for even less than a dollar’s cost).
New Aquafairy Fuel Cell Can Recharge an iPhone in 90 Minutes
26 February 2011 | Alternative Energy | No Comments
Aquafairy, a Japanese based company, developed a new fuel cell (the AF-M3000). The new fuel cell is capable of powering a cell phone, using just a bit of water. Is said that, by replacing a battery with a fuel cell in any of our electronic devices will give us about 30 hours of extra energy.
It would be nice if we could achieve this performance, but for now, all these figures are just dreams. So, researchers are trying to materialize these kind of projects, in order to shut down the skeptics.
Scientists Managed to Extract Hydrogen from Water Using Solar Power
30 November 2010 | Solar Power | No Comments
MIT professor Daniel Nocera came up with a new way to use solar energy during night (a solar power system that converts solar energy to hydrogen). Instead of storing the energy in batteries, he found a way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in order to use hydrogen in a fuel cell for night use.
Solar energy has become a real star among today’s alternative energy sources. Using solar power at night involves some issues and most of them are related to those high costs of batteries. Now, it seems that Daniel Nocera found the Holy Grail. “We have the capability to power a household with just two bottles of water from any source” he said.
New mitochondria fuel cell uses soda to power laptops and cell phones
29 August 2010 | Alternative Energy | 1 Comment
Scientists presented at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society their new mitochondria fuel cell, that uses sugar to produce electricity. It may sound weird, but this is true! Once again inspired by nature and living organisms, scientists used in their experiments a particular compound found in organic cells (the mitochondria) that can convert sugar and fats into energy.
Core and Shell Nanoparticle Using Less Platinum Could Make Fuel-Cells Better
23 August 2010 | Green Technology | No Comments
A new developed core-and-shell nanoparticle containing less platinum than today commercially available catalysts, may improve the efficiency of fuel cells by up to 12 percent.
Researchers at Brown University explained that at the cathode end of fuel-cells takes place a redox reaction that often causes an energy loss of up to 40%. “…this is a crucial step in making fuel cells a more competitive technology with internal combustion engines and batteries”, says Shouheng Sun, coauthor of the study at Brown University.
