mini fuel engine to replace batteries

[VJ]

I'm puzzled: is this a good evolution, or a bad one ?

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have developed an internal combustion engine that could replace batteries as the power source for portable electronic devices.

http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/053001/Engine_fires_up_electrical_devices_053001.html

Jörg

[az]

Well, such a thing would be more efficient than batteries, I think, and its energy density would be a lot higher. But nobody would want to inhale the exhaust gasses such a system would inevitably produce, so the near future belongs to fuel cells. There's a short piece about those over at www.dansdata.com

AZ

[Paddy]

erm... dunno... alternatives are always good.... Not sure if promoting a method that consumes a non-renewanle resource, even if it is in small amounts, is a good thing though...

Perhaps a matrix style device that harnesses the electro-thermo-mechanical-whatnot of the human body would be a cool idea...just imagine, you could attach it to the person asleep next to you. Although i guess it bring a whole knew meaning to the term 'sweat-shop'.

[az]

Actually, those thermo-thingys are being researched atm, to power mobile devices (mp3 player, mobile phone, pda) in the future - you attach them (or parts of them) to your body, and they generate electricity from your body heat. Sounds pretty cool actually, because they might even cool you down nicely in the summer

This technology taken further would even mean that air conditioning wouldn't consume the immense amounts of power it does now, but PRODUCES electricity through removing energy (warmth) from the air. Now this would be really amazing, and I'd get myself one of these things as soon as I could afford them.

Oh, others are researching machines that produce electricity out of sugar, etc... reminds me of the "Mr. Fusion" from Back To The Future

AZ

[Technoid]

Batteries also have the advantage of not producing air pollution in their immediate environments. The main pollutant produced by combustion engines is carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas.

"The mini engine produces as much carbon dioxide as one person at rest," or about one 400th the exhaust of an automobile traveling at 60 mph, said Knobloch. One hundred micro engines would produce the same amount of carbon dioxide as one mini engine, he added.

[Paddy]

What if it used liquid hydrogen and oxygen???
or... how about a beer powered laptop?????

[GNEP]

Won't this be aiming at exactly the same spot that small fuel cells are targetted at?

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Paddy
What if it used liquid hydrogen and oxygen???
or... how about a beer powered laptop?????

I would be constantly "checking" the "fuel" for quality!

[VJ]

Originally posted by az
Actually, those thermo-thingys are being researched atm, to power mobile devices (mp3 player, mobile phone, pda) in the future - you attach them (or parts of them) to your body, and they generate electricity from your body heat. Sounds pretty cool actually, because they might even cool you down nicely in the summer

Wasn't there an idea a couple of years ago that used some form of "generators" in the shoes; walking (i.e. every step) would then produce a minor current, which in turn could charge a cellphone (not much, but it would expand the autonomy).
I believe Compaq then hinted towards using a similar principle in laptops, where current generated by keypresses would be used...


Jörg

[Paddy]

Won't this be aiming at exactly the same spot that small fuel cells are targetted at?

Aye, but a cup of water is more 'environmentally friendly' than more carbon dioxide....

[ZokesPro]

Where can I get myself one of them tiny engines?

[Kooldino]

Yay for rotary engines. Would be even nicer if the laptop still had a battery, but used the little rotary engine to charge the battery if it got below a certain threshold.

[Rob(QG)]

Several things about that article confused me

The larger version produces about half a watt - is that kinetic or electrical energy? Either way it isn't a particularly useful amount.

Then there was this statement:

The mini engine will run for about two hours on one fluid ounce of fuel, and the micro engine could run for about 67 days on the same amount of fuel, said Aaron Knobloch, a graduate student at Berkeley

This is particularly meaningless - the less fuel it uses, the less kinetic/electrical energy it produces. If the smaller engine had the same efficiency as the larger engine this would amount to 1/1608th of a watt.

Can't really see today's power hungry computing gear going far on that...