Canucks discover new source of Electricity from Water

curiousuburbcuriousuburb
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Canadian researchers have announced the discovery of the first new source of electricity in 160 years.



Electrokinetic is the new term.

Zero moving parts. Zero pollution.

Strips ions off water by passing it through microtubes in a ceramic filter.

Preliminary yields are small, but lots of potential for nanopower

(pun intended)



ScienceDaily story



University of Alberta News Release



CTV News story (with WMP Video clip)



Quote:

Major electricity breakthroughs:



1800: Allesandro Volta discovers electrochemical effect, used in batteries.



1821: Thomas Seebeck discovers Seebeck effect, used in thermoelectric generators.



1831: Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction, used in electric generators.



1839: Edmond Becquerel discovers photovoltaic effect, used in solar cells.



1839: Sir William Grove discovers proton exchange membranes used in fuel cells.



2002: Larry Kostiuk and Daniel Kwok discover electrokinetic effect, could lead to pressurized water battery and other uses.



Kostiuk and Kwok had only met that day and were discussing potential areas of research collaboration, when after only one hour they mutually hit upon a "Eureka moment" and had sketched out the prototype.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    Interesting, but you need to input energy to make the water flow. Time will tell how it rivals traditional turbine-hydro for extraction of energy from flowing water. Maybe it could augment it, do both simultaneously. The materials would probably be horrendously expensive on an industrial scale, though.



    I wonder if it would still work with deionized water, or if it works better with concentrated salt solutions?
  • Reply 2 of 4
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    Sounds like a dumber Canooky version of " Cold Fusion "



    Remember that one....?
  • Reply 3 of 4
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    Actually, it shouldnt work with any salt -- at that point the charged glass simply attracts what is called an double layer of ions and the remainder of the solution should flow freely. I guess you could garner energy from that, but I suspect that it would be a great deal harder than using the naturally insulting properties of pure water (and the presense of a low concentration of ions, ie H+ and HO-) to store and generate electricity. This will only work if you have some sort of pumping system be it temperature gradient or otherwise produced.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    finboyfinboy Posts: 383member
    You'd figure Canadians would be more likely to figure out a fuel source based on ice.
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