D
Danno
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
This was sent to me by a pal, but I have been unable to confirm the story (on
the internet).
What a beautiful solar day!
EDMONTON (CP) - A University of Alberta research team says it has
discovered a clean way of generating electricity by simply directing
water at a solid surface.
The discovery is chronicled in a research paper to be published Monday
by the London-based Institute of Physics. It has a wide range of
possible uses - from powering small devices such as Palm Pilots or
calculators with water batteries, to maybe someday contributing
electricity from a clean, renewable source to a national power grid,
says the university.
"The discovery of an entirely new way of producing power is an
incredible, fundamental research breakthrough that occurs only once in
a lifetime," said David Lynch, dean of the university's engineering
faculty.
"This groundbreaking discovery will earn these researchers and the
University of Alberta a place of prominence in scientific journals and
textbooks for decades to come, and may find significant applications in
numerous commercial areas."
With the help of two graduate students, engineering professors Daniel
Kwok and Larry Kostiuk were able to light a small bulb by squeezing a
syringe of ordinary tap water through a glass "filter" with
microscopic-sized holes.
They did it by harnessing the natural energy that is created on a very
tiny scale when a flowing liquid meets a solid surface.
Their research has been published in the physics institute's Journal of
Micromechanics and Microengineering.
Kostiuk, chairman of the mechanical engineering department, said a
conversation between him and Kwok led to the eureka moment and their
invention.
He said Kwok - a scientist who studies the properties of the first few
molecular and atomic layers on surfaces - was explaining his work to
him.
It's been known for many decades that when a liquid such as water comes
into contact with a non-conducting solid such as glass, ceramic or
stone an interaction occurs between the two at a microscopic level
that creates a charge on the surface, Kostiuk said.
Because of the movement of positive and negative ions, the solid
becomes negatively charged and the water next to the surface
positively charged.
Kwok was explaining if one puts the water through a "microchannel," -
imagine a tiny tube - the positive and negatives ions move so that one
end becomes positive and the other negative.
"I asked him ... couldn't we exploit that to create electricity,"
Kostiuk said.
Kostiuk was surprised by his response - that it was possible but it
hadn't been done before. In his turn, Kwok was surprised by the idea.
"It doesn't happen very often. That moment when you understand is a
very positive thing to feel," said Kostiuk.
"I was walking on a cloud for the next day. I couldn't believe nobody
else had really looked at this and done it before.
"The possibility just kept bouncing through my mind about how we would
do this," he said, adding Kwok shared his enthusiasm.
But it was a blend of being excited and cautious. It took patience to
wait until they were able to take their theory and calculations and do
an experiment to show it was real.
What continues to strike Kostiuk is the simplicity of their invention.
Using a syringe, they pressed water through their "filter," a two-
centimetre glass disc with 450,000 holes in it - something commonly
found in labs, he said. The holes act as the microchannels where the
charge is created.
They attached metal electrodes at either end of their device and
connected them using a wire to create a pathway for the current - and
they had electricity.
"Embarrassingly, that's it," he said.
This is only the starting point and much work needs to be done to find
ways to develop applications, he stressed.
But conceivably, a version of their battery using pressurized water
could be used in small electronic devices in a number of years. But
you'd have to "recharge" your cell-phone battery by using a hand pump
to repressurize the water, for example, Kostiuk said.
Theoretically, there's nothing to prevent it from being scaled up,
Kostiuk said. To create electricity on a very large scale, you would
have to have a large volume of water flowing through many million
microchannels.
The university applied for a patent on their invention in August and is
currently working with the inventors to find ways to commercialize the
discovery.
<A9> The Canadian Press, 2003
the internet).
What a beautiful solar day!
EDMONTON (CP) - A University of Alberta research team says it has
discovered a clean way of generating electricity by simply directing
water at a solid surface.
The discovery is chronicled in a research paper to be published Monday
by the London-based Institute of Physics. It has a wide range of
possible uses - from powering small devices such as Palm Pilots or
calculators with water batteries, to maybe someday contributing
electricity from a clean, renewable source to a national power grid,
says the university.
"The discovery of an entirely new way of producing power is an
incredible, fundamental research breakthrough that occurs only once in
a lifetime," said David Lynch, dean of the university's engineering
faculty.
"This groundbreaking discovery will earn these researchers and the
University of Alberta a place of prominence in scientific journals and
textbooks for decades to come, and may find significant applications in
numerous commercial areas."
With the help of two graduate students, engineering professors Daniel
Kwok and Larry Kostiuk were able to light a small bulb by squeezing a
syringe of ordinary tap water through a glass "filter" with
microscopic-sized holes.
They did it by harnessing the natural energy that is created on a very
tiny scale when a flowing liquid meets a solid surface.
Their research has been published in the physics institute's Journal of
Micromechanics and Microengineering.
Kostiuk, chairman of the mechanical engineering department, said a
conversation between him and Kwok led to the eureka moment and their
invention.
He said Kwok - a scientist who studies the properties of the first few
molecular and atomic layers on surfaces - was explaining his work to
him.
It's been known for many decades that when a liquid such as water comes
into contact with a non-conducting solid such as glass, ceramic or
stone an interaction occurs between the two at a microscopic level
that creates a charge on the surface, Kostiuk said.
Because of the movement of positive and negative ions, the solid
becomes negatively charged and the water next to the surface
positively charged.
Kwok was explaining if one puts the water through a "microchannel," -
imagine a tiny tube - the positive and negatives ions move so that one
end becomes positive and the other negative.
"I asked him ... couldn't we exploit that to create electricity,"
Kostiuk said.
Kostiuk was surprised by his response - that it was possible but it
hadn't been done before. In his turn, Kwok was surprised by the idea.
"It doesn't happen very often. That moment when you understand is a
very positive thing to feel," said Kostiuk.
"I was walking on a cloud for the next day. I couldn't believe nobody
else had really looked at this and done it before.
"The possibility just kept bouncing through my mind about how we would
do this," he said, adding Kwok shared his enthusiasm.
But it was a blend of being excited and cautious. It took patience to
wait until they were able to take their theory and calculations and do
an experiment to show it was real.
What continues to strike Kostiuk is the simplicity of their invention.
Using a syringe, they pressed water through their "filter," a two-
centimetre glass disc with 450,000 holes in it - something commonly
found in labs, he said. The holes act as the microchannels where the
charge is created.
They attached metal electrodes at either end of their device and
connected them using a wire to create a pathway for the current - and
they had electricity.
"Embarrassingly, that's it," he said.
This is only the starting point and much work needs to be done to find
ways to develop applications, he stressed.
But conceivably, a version of their battery using pressurized water
could be used in small electronic devices in a number of years. But
you'd have to "recharge" your cell-phone battery by using a hand pump
to repressurize the water, for example, Kostiuk said.
Theoretically, there's nothing to prevent it from being scaled up,
Kostiuk said. To create electricity on a very large scale, you would
have to have a large volume of water flowing through many million
microchannels.
The university applied for a patent on their invention in August and is
currently working with the inventors to find ways to commercialize the
discovery.
<A9> The Canadian Press, 2003
