| A team of scientists has discovered a completely
new way to make electricity from flowing water.
The breakthrough, the first new method of electricity production for 160 years, could provide free, clean energy for devices such as mobile phones and calculators. On a large scale, it could conceivably be used to feed power into the national grid. Dr David Lynch, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta in Canada, where the technology was developed, said: "The discovery of an entirely new way of producing power is an incredible fundamental research breakthrough that occurs once in a lifetime." A water powered mobile phone would contain a small reservoir pressurised by a hand pump. Electricity is generated as the water is released and surges through an array of tiny microchannels. The system relies on the natural 'electrokinetic' effect of a fluid flowing over a solid surface. An interplay of forces results in a thin layer of water - where it meets the surface - with a net electric charge. This region is known as the Electric Double Layer (EDL). Normally it goes unnoticed, but the Alberta scientists found that forcing water through a channel with a diameter similar to the EDL produces a flowing current. The amount of electricity generated by one microchannel is minute. But millions of parallel channels can produce enough power to operate electronic equipment such as a mobile phone. |
Professor Larry Kostiuk, a thermodynamicist at the university, hit
on the idea after a chance conversation with a fellow scientist about surface-interface
phenomena.
Later, he and nanofabrication researcher Professor Daniel Kwok - the other party in the conversation - illuminated a real light bulb by passing water through a porous glass filter. Their findings were published in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. Professor Kostiuk said: "This discovery has a huge number of possible applications. It could be a new alternative energy source to rival wind and solar power, although this would need huge bodies of water to work on a commercial scale." "Hydrocarbon fuels are still the best source of energy, but they're fast running out and so new options like this one could be vital in the future. "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." Un complément sur ATS (octobre 2002); l'usine est en construction à Cambridge (Ontario, Canada). Elle produira l'équivalent de 20 MW-crête annuellement et occupera 175 personnes. On parle d'un investissement de 85 M USD. Par comparaison, l'usine belge Photovoltech en construction à Tirlemont, qui est un investissement Total(...)-Electrabel-IMEC produira 6-9 MW-crête (10 % de la production européenne) et occupera 50 personnes. On parle de 10 M Euros d'investissement. Comme elles entreront en production à peu près en même temps (entre juin et décembre 2003), on verra bien l'évolution. ATS est déjà le propriétaire de la société française Photowatt qui distribuera les nouveaux produits en Europe. |