Oil companies can wave goodbye to their profits: Researchers in the U.K. have built a battery that runs on garbage that can provide electricity for your home. And in France, they’ve developed a car that runs on air. Right now, the fuel cell runs on sugar cubes, since they produce no waste when broken down, but researchers want to run it on carrot power next.
E. coli bacteria (the same kind that gives you a stomach ache) live inside the battery and produce enzymes that break down carbohydrates, releasing hydrogen atoms. The cell also contains chemicals that use these atoms to create voltage that can be used to power an electrical circuit. One cell can light a 40-watt bulb for eight hours on just a few teaspoons of sugar.
Engineers in France have invented a 100% non-polluting car, which costs almost nothing to run?since it runs on air. It?s the size of a compact car, with a large trunk and a steering wheel in the middle, and passenger seats on each side. The air is compressed at 150 times the pressure put into car tires.
The car comes with its own compressor, so you can fill up at home?however, this takes 4 hours. The company hopes gas stations will eventually offer compressed air machines that can fill up the car in 3 minutes.
It will have a top speed of 65 mph and can go 125 miles between refills, which is about half as far as your average SUV can go between trips to the gas station. This means that they are more likely to be sold in Europe, where people want small cars for inner city driving. American drivers, who regularly commute long distances, get nervous about cars with limited ranges. A good use for them in the U.S. would be as delivery vans, since many localities mandate non-polluting commercial vehicles.
We may live this way in the future, but Jose Arguilles thinks that if we follow the calendar of the past, it will change our lives. Check this out for yourself by reading ?Time & Technosphere,?click here.
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