Water sparks new power source

Water sparks new power source

A new way to generate electricity from water which could be used to power small electronic devices in the future has been developed by Canadian scientists.

It could provide new power for chips
The researchers have harnessed what happens to water when it is pumped through tiny channels.

"What we have achieved so far is to show that electrical power can be directly generated from flowing liquids in microchannels," said Professor Larry Kostiuk from University of Alberta.

The team says its "electrokinetic" battery could be further developed to provide a clean, non-polluting power source that could eventually drive small devices such as mobile phones.

But some experts in the field have cast doubt over its potential as a useful source of power.

Early promise

The research by Professor Kostiuk and colleague Professor Daniel Kwok is published by an Institute of Physics journal.

It is said to be the first new method of generating electricity in over 150 years.

The work is all to do with charge separation, and what happens to ions in liquids when they come into contact with a non-conducting solid.



Its best first application might be in the field of micro-electronic mechanic systems, like labs which are being built on computer chips which require power

Professor Kostiuk, University of Alberta
The team created a glass block, two centimetres in diameter and three millimetres thick, containing about 400,000 to 500,000 individual channels.

Thanks to a phenomenon called the electric double layer, when water flows through these 10-micron-diameter-wide channels, a positive charge is created at one end of the block and a negative charge at the other - just like a conventional battery.

The prototype generated about 10 volts with a current of around a milliamp. This allowed the team to successfully power a lightbulb.

The scientists stress their work is in its early stages.

Nano application

"The applications in electronics and microelectronic devices are very exciting," said Professor Kostiuk.

"This technology could provide a new power source for devices such as mobile phones or calculators which could be charged up by pumping water to high pressure."

They suggest more research needs to be done to develop the potential of how their prototype device can be turned into a battery for commercial use.

One mechanical engineering expert BBC News Online spoke to was hesitant about the potential uses of this energy source, however.

Dr Jon Gibbins from Imperial College London said he could only see it generating a small amount of power on a small scale, so it might have uses on a nanotech scale.

"Its best first application might be in the field of micro-electronic mechanic systems, like labs which are being built on computer chips which require power," said Professor Kostiuk, but the research is still in its infancy.

Improving efficiency

Making electricity from water is by no means new.

Large-scale power generation already happens with hydroelectric power turbines which are almost 100% efficient at converting available energy in the water to electricity.

Magnetohydrodynamic methods also generate electricity through water.

What Professor Kostiuk and his team have achieved is create a kind of turbine device that does not have moving parts.

"Efficiency is a fraction of 1% and right now we are trying to fully understand the characteristics of such devices.

"The real goal is to find ways of improving its efficiency to around four to 16% to compete with other energy sources."

When water is forced through thousands of tiny microchannels in a negatively-charged glass filter, a positive layer is created at one end, and a negative one at the other - exactly as in a conventional battery
This phenomenon is called an electrical double layer
When electrodes are attached at either end, an electric charge can be tapped. The prototype battery generated about 10 volts

Artificial photosynthesis for future energy production

Artificial photosynthesis for future energy production
February 21, 2005

Nature utilizes energy from the sun for its production. Some algae produce hydrogen from water with the help of solar energy. So why not imitate nature to extract renewable energy without harming the environment? The EU is now giving European research a boost by allocating €1.8 million to a new network to be led by Uppsala University.

Plant photosynthesis has long been studied with an eye to understanding its underlying mechanisms and then applying this knowledge to the production of energy for the needs of society. Today, hydrogen is regarded as one of the most promising forms of fuel for the future. A new European network, SOLAR-H, has now been established to bring together research competence from different fields.

“The network consists of laboratories that lead the world in a broad spectrum of fields from molecular biology, biochemistry, and synthetic chemistry to physical chemistry,” says Professor Stenbjörn Styring at the Section for Biomimetics at Uppsala University.

He recently moved to Uppsala from Lund University, together with his research team, and he will now be coordinating the new network, which was initiated in Sweden and the Consortium for Artificial Photosynthesis. With the move to Uppsala the Consortium will now be able to gather most of its research at one university, having previously been split up at three different ones. Uppsala already had Leif Hammarström’s team in chemical physics and Peter Lindblad’s group in physiological botany. A further team has now been assembled around synthetic chemists that recently came to Uppsala from Stockholm University in connection with Styring’s move.

“We now have about 40 individuals gathered at Uppsala and are full of enthusiasm about the future,” he adds.

With its breadth, the Uppsala team will be able to apply many different approaches simultaneously. Lindblad’s team is studying living cyanobacteria (a kind of alga) and is altering their metabolism at the genetic level so they produce hydrogen without absorbing it at the same time. Styring heads a team that is studying the mechanisms of natural photosynthesis at the biochemical level, while a third team led by a group of young scientists are busy synthesizing the molecule complexes necessary to imitate the natural process. In Leif Hammarström’s team the rapid and complex reactions can be studied using a series of different physical methods of measurement.

“We think artificial photosynthesis has tremendous potential, even though it remains to be demonstrated. It’s a scientific challenge, and if we succeed, the market will be gigantic.”

Other laboratories in SOLAR-H are in France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Renewable Energy vs. Fossil Fuels

Renewable Energy vs Fossil Fuels

In Chapter 8, we discussed the world's supply of fossil fuels -- oil, coal and natural gas and how it is being depleted slowly because of constant use. Fossil fuels are not renewable, they can't be made again. Once they are gone, they're gone.

In Chapters 11 to 16, we learned that there's no shortage of renewable energy from the sun, wind and water and even stuff usually thought of as garbage -- dead trees, tree branches, yard clippings, left-over crops, sawdust, even livestock manure, can produce electricity and fuels -- resources collectively called "biomass."

The sunlight falling on the United States in one day contains more than twice the energy we consume in an entire year. California has enough wind gusts to produce 11 percent of the world's wind electricity. Clean energy sources can be harnessed to produce electricity, process heat, fuel and valuable chemicals with less impact on the environment.

In contrast, emissions from cars fueled by gasoline and factories and other facilities that burn oil affect the atmosphere. Foul air results in so-called greenhouse gases. About -81% of all U.S. greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide emissions from energy-related sources.

Renewable energy resource development will result in new jobs for people and less oil we have to buy from foreign countries. According to the federal government, America spent $109 billion to import oil in 2000. If we fully develop self-renewing resources, we will keep the money at home to help the economy.

Continued research has made renewable energy more affordable today than 25 years ago. The cost of wind energy has declined from 40¢ per kilowatt-hour to less than 5¢. The cost of electricity from the sun, through photovoltaics (literally meaning "light-electricity") has dropped from more than $1/kilowatt-hour in 1980 to nearly 20¢/kilowatt-hour today. And ethanol fuel costs have plummeted from $4 per gallon in the early 1980s to $1.20 today.

But there are also drawbacks to renewable energy development.

For example, solar thermal energy involving the collection of solar rays through collectors (often times huge mirrors) need large tracts of land as a collection site. This impacts the natural habitat, meaning the plants and animals that live there. The environment is also impacted when the buildings, roads, transmission lines and transformers are built. The fluid most often used with solar thermal electric generation is very toxic and spills can happen.

Solar or PV cells use the same technologies as the production of silicon chips for computers. The manufacturing process uses toxic chemicals. Toxic chemicals are also used in making batteries to store solar electricity through the night and on cloudy days.. Manufacturing this equipment has environmental impacts.

Also, even if we wanted to switch to solar energy right away, we still have a big problem. All the solar production facilities in the entire world only make enough solar cells to produce about 350 megawatts, about enough for a city of 300,000 people. that's a drop in the bucket compared to our needs. California alone needs about 55,000 megawatts of electricity on a sunny, hot summer day. And the cost of producing that much electricity would be about four times more expensive than a regular natural gas-fired power plant.

So, even though the renewable power plant doesn't release air pollution or use precious fossil fuels, it still has an impact on the environment.

Wind power development too, has its downside, mostly involving land use. The average wind farm requires 17 acres of land to produce one megawatt of electricity, about enough electricity for 750 to 1,000 homes. However, farms and cattle grazing can use the same land under the wind turbines.

Wind farms could cause erosion in desert areas. Most often, winds farms affect the natural view because they tend to be located on or just below ridgelines. Bird deaths also occur due to collisions with wind turbines and associated wires. This issue is the subject of on-going research.

Producing geothermal electricity from the earth's crust tends to be localized. That means facilities have to be built where geothermal energy is abundant. There are several geothermal resource locations in California. The Geysers area north of San Francisco is an example. In the course of geothermal production, steam coming from the ground becomes very caustic at times, causing pipes to corrode and fall apart. Geothermal power plants sometimes cost a little bit more than a gas-fired power plant because they have to include the cost to drill.

Environmental concerns are associated with dams to produce hydroelectric power. People are displaced and prime farmland and forests are lost in the flooded areas above dams. Downstream, dams change the chemical, physical and biological characteristics of the river and land.

Unlike fossil fuels, which dirties the atmosphere, renewable energy has less impact on the environment Renewable energy production has some drawbacks, mainly associated with the use of large of tracts of land that affects animal habitats and outdoor scenery. Renewable energy development will result in jobs and less oil imported from foreign countries.


Note: For those working on a school assignment comparing renewable vs. non-renewable energy, we'd suggest creating a Pro and Con list for each energy source. That will give you a a way to compare the various energy resources.

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