Harvesting energy from humidity - Water droplets can charge your Cellphones. https://youtube/watch?v=hs06MVKkt_0&list=PLK2ccNIJVPpB_XqWWq_oaZGIDzmKiSkYc Last year, MIT researchers discovered that when water droplets spontaneously jump away from superhydrophobic surfaces during condensation, they can gain electric charge in the process. Now, the same team has demonstrated that this process can generate small amounts of electricity that might be used to power electronic devices. This approach could lead to devices to charge cellphones or other electronics using just the humidity in the air. As a side benefit, the system could also produce clean water. The device itself could be simple, consisting of a series of interleaved flat metal plates. In initial testing, the amount of power produced was vanishingly small — just 15 picowatts per square centimeter of metal plate. But accroding to the researcher, the process could easily be tuned to achieve at least 1 microwatt per square centimeter. Such output would be comparable to that of other systems that have been proposed for harvesting waste heat, vibrations, or other sources of ambient energy, and represents an amount that could be sufficient to provide useful power for electronic devices in some remote locations. A cube measuring about 50 centimeters on a side — about the size of a typical camping cooler — could be sufficient to fully charge a cellphone in about 12 hours. While that may seem slow, people in remote areas may have few alternatives. There are some constraints: Because the process relies on condensation, it requires a humid environment, as well as a source of temperatures colder than the surrounding air, such as a cave or river. #technology #innovation #technews
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 06:10:59 +0000
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