Potato-Powered Batteries

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John_Keck

Limp Gawd
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May 3, 2010
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Jerusalem researchers have developed simple, sustainable organic batteries that are powered by potatoes.

Thus, the boiled potato or other similarly treated vegetables could provide an immediate, environmental friendly and inexpensive solution to many of the low power energy needs in areas of the world lacking access to electrical infrastructure. The long-keeping humble potatoes in particular are a good energy source since they are produced in 130 countries over a wide range of climates, from temperate zones to the subtropics- more than any other crop worldwide, but corn, and thus available year round almost anywhere.
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Hmm, lets see....

I can go to the frozen food section in a store and get a bag of steak cut which equal Cs, crinkle cut =s AA, and shoestring cuts =s AAA.
 
Is it just me or is turning a food source into minuscule amounts of power in some of the poorest parts of the world really really stupid. Somehow I thing actually eating the potato would do them a lot more good.
 
wtiger said:
Is it just me or is turning a food source into minuscule amounts of power in some of the poorest parts of the world really really stupid. Somehow I thing actually eating the potato would do them a lot more good.
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+1 When one reads the reason for what the spud battery is designed for and for whom, tells me these people are out of touch with reality. Any time you make something like this out of a food source that can be eaten by the malnutritioned of the world your an idiot waiting to be called an idiot. Why not make a battery out of dung from any source people don't eat . "Telecommunication" Like the starving and poor without electricity, all have cell phones. Sometimes I have to shake my head at the sheltered lives these people have come from, and their a lot closer to the dieing then I am.
 
My wife told me about a Martha Stewart April Fool joke where she showed the whole studio running on potatoes.
 
I was given a little kit as a kid which had a clock and two wires, and you'd stick it in a potato and voila... the clock was powered for weeks. This is news... ?
 
Am I the only other one thinking about the overall impact of this? I mean you have to grow them, which takes energy input, then you are talking about "treating" them, which seems to be boiling them, and that can be allot more energy being put in. It all seemed short on real details, but I am still left wondering how practical this is other than at grabbing headlines?
 
BlueFireIce said:
Am I the only other one thinking about the overall impact of this? I mean you have to grow them, which takes energy input, then you are talking about "treating" them, which seems to be boiling them, and that can be allot more energy being put in. It all seemed short on real details, but I am still left wondering how practical this is other than at grabbing headlines?
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So cap and trade will become Cap Trade and Potato Tax.:D
 
In other news, chocolate can also be used as a power source...

Feed it to a guy then get him to burn off the callories on an exercise bike tied to a generator.
 
I am curious how they are going to keep replenishing the zinc that gets used, using a potato as an electrolyte isn't a major breakthrough. Whats next? Harnessing the power of pasta?
 
Ya, it's neat, but i'm wondering how this is new. We used to make these in Boy Scouts decades ago.
 
Great, so hybrid cars will now have sacks of potatoes instead of Li-Ion batteries. :eek: :D (Yes, I said "sacks".)
 
Yeah...we've known for years that potassium in potatoes can be used for energy.

Irish potato famine in 3...2...1...
 
A nuclear armed nation just now figuring out a near-useless grade school science lab. Should I feel concerned or insulted.. definitely a sad panda. I agree with eating potatoes over using them for energy storage; a laughable use in impoverished, underdeveloped countries. If this is their idea of helping others.. do I even need to point out the irony/hypocrisy? What a great example of trying to appear philanthropic from a nation so self-absorbed (not the only one for sure but wow, just wow).
 
What's with all this obsession over plant-based energy sources? Stop trying to use FOOD to power machines! Food is for eating! If you want unlimited clean power, spend more money and effort getting nuclear fusion working instead of trying to create bio-this and bio-that. Sustainable fusion + electric cars = zero pollution. There's your clean energy! :rolleyes:
 
Phoenix333 said:
What's with all this obsession over plant-based energy sources? Stop trying to use FOOD to power machines! Food is for eating! If you want unlimited clean power, spend more money and effort getting nuclear fusion working instead of trying to create bio-this and bio-that. Sustainable fusion + electric cars = zero pollution. There's your clean energy! :rolleyes:
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Logic? You dare to use logic? For shame...:(
 
Phoenix333 said:
What's with all this obsession over plant-based energy sources? Stop trying to use FOOD to power machines! Food is for eating! If you want unlimited clean power, spend more money and effort getting nuclear fusion working instead of trying to create bio-this and bio-that. Sustainable fusion + electric cars = zero pollution. There's your clean energy! :rolleyes:
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After producing ethanol the distiller's grain is still fed to livestock. It is not like ALL the corn is used to make fuel for our vehicles.
Growing food to feed livestock is a tremendous waste of resources, we should just stop breeding livestock and strictly grow food for ourselves.
 
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