Oh, batteries. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. Then I saw some news on this field. Potatoes May Power The Batteries Of The Future article tells about a potato powered battery. It promises to be simple, sustainable, robust device can potentially provide an immediate inexpensive solution to electricity needs in parts of the world lacking electrical infrastructure. Researchers at the Hebrew University claimed that the boiled potato or other similarly treated vegetables could provide an immediate, environmental friendly and inexpensive solution to many of the low power energy needs in areas of the world lacking access to electrical infrastructure. The ability to produce and utilize low power electricity was demonstrated by LEDs powered by treated potato batteries.
Does this sound too good to be true? The fact is that is too good to be true. And this is not a true green power source. It is a fact that you can use potatoes and metal electrodes to make a working battery. The problem here is that the energy extracted from this battery actually doesn’t come from the potatoes, but from the corrosion of the electrodes. Yes, you can get energy even from an “Earth Battery”, but no, it ain’t free. If you replace the potato or soil with zinc chloride or acid you get a better working battery. These substances have better electrolytic properties.
So the original news article misses the point about where the power in batteries actually comes from, which is the difference in electric potential between the two metals used as electrodes. What you get is most propably a small a fraction of the energy that was necessary to produce the metal from ore. Not exactly an efficient way to store power, and a terribly stupid way to use expensive metals! And in addition to that the potato used on this experiement is just waste contaminated with metal.
So to get green energy would be better to use commercial rechargeable batteries and use actual real renewable energy such as hydro or wind to recharge them.
14 Comments
Tim says:
I’ve been into environmentalism for 20 some odd years now. I’ve always wanted to find a way to reduce our usage of the electrical grid, which I’ve done to some extent with a few solar panels, but I can’t really afford anything that would power the whole home. I’ve been looking into building a cheap magnetic generator (here is one example I found, but I’ve been wondering how hard it would be. Have you had any experice with this or others?
tomi says:
According to http://www.nlcpr.com/Deceptions8.php Magniwork Magnetic Generator you mentioned in your comment is a Scam Fraud. And there are many other web pages with the same type of comments. And those Magniwork is Scam sites seem to have their facts more right than the official site…. anyone who knows something on physics and electricity will see which is right and which is not right.
Randa Pomales says:
Just want to add that it is really awfull how we are just consuming ever natural resource available on Earth. How will our children make it in the worl today. Please try to help by making some changes if not for me or yourself, do it for your children. I am doing my part here.
John W says:
I was doing a search for store wind energy today and came across this post, Free energy batteries? « Tomi Engdahl’s ePanorama blog. Interesting to say the least.
tomi says:
Free energy magnetic generator is a scam. It does not work as you think it would. It does not generate free energy.
Magniwork Plans says:
I don’t know why so many think the magniwork generator is a scam. I’ve been using my OWN that I built MYSELF for over 2 years now, and guess what – it realy DOES work.
tomi says:
Reading the Magniwork web page
“A Zero point magnetic power generator is basically a Free Energy Generator. It uses magnets, and magnetic force to induce perpetual motion. It runs by itself, indefinitely without stopping, thus creating completely free electrical energy, which can fully power your home for free.”
and comments like this
http://blog.mapawatt.com/2009/07/21/magniwork_perpetual_motion_scam/
“Perpetual motion! Woo Hoo! Sounds like a great deal huh? Unfortunately it violates that First Law of Thermodynamics. Physicists and Engineers don’t call it the LAW of conservation of energy just to have a clever marketing name.”
“Why can you never have a perpetual motion machine? Because you will always have friction! Whether it is air friction or friction of a rotating shaft on a bearing, you will always have it! Friction causes things to slow down, so no matter how much energy you start with, friction will slowly eat away at that energy. ”
“The website isn’t even selling a machine, but just plans for a machine. Obviously that is a smart idea for an energy scam artist. They can always claim that you just hooked it up wrong. And they claim that the reason you haven’t heard of this wonderful device yet is because corporations are suppressing the information. Let me promise you this: If a perpetual motion machine existed that created electricity, it would make a corporation the richest corporation in the world. That’s a fact. Corporations would love to sell a machine that created free electricity!”
“No devices exist that even come close to free energy.”
Magniwork Energy internet scam
http://www.off-grid.net/2009/10/08/magniwork-energy-internet-scam/
“Internet fraudsters are raking in thousands of dollars a day with an elaborate scam selling magnetic perpetual motion machines that are claimed to produce infinite free energy.”
“However even the idea of such a device is dismissed by trained physicists. “The little explanation they give on their website makes no sense to me,” said Gunnar Pruessner, a lecturer in physics at Imperial College London. “For starters it breaks with all we know about quantum physics since Dirac, which says that we cannot tap into zero point fluctuations or virtual particles.” ”
“Most of the 50+ page manual contains energy conservation tips that are based on well-established principles,”
“The wording on their site still gives the reader the idea that the plans will result in a working free energy device but that is not the case. Such representation is fraud,”
“Although highly implausible, the idea of somehow harvesting magnetic power has intrigued scientists for over a century. ”
solar power says:
I really liked your blog! It helped me alot…
magnetic generator says:
I just wonder why our country would not develop a safe source of energy
such as the magnetic generator as described here: http://topmagneticgenerator.com
and get rid of all these toxic energy plants around
tomi says:
I don’t buy your free energy magnet generator idea.
http://mapawatt.com/2009/07/21/magniwork_perpetual_motion_scam/
http://www.nlcpr.com/Deceptions8.php
http://www.squidoo.com/magnetic_generator
http://magneticgeneratornow.wordpress.com/
Some articles say: “Many power companies are trying to ruin the reputation of these guides and the magnetic generator, calling it a “lie” and a “SCAM””
I don’t think that it the case. If those magnetic generators are really as good as they are claimed to be, I would be pretty sure that some power company investing to alternative energy would be really testing and using them. I work in a field near to power companies, nut I have not heard of any such trials… And knowing some physics their working principle does not feel sound. And the way many text describing this system are written make it feel like scam (similar patterns to other scams… like big bad companies trying to ruin reputation etc..).
So it is pretty easy to believe more on those articles that tell that those magnetic generators are scan….
joe says:
laws of free engery with batterys 1 runtime must be greater than charge time 2 u cannot charge and run off the same battery.
JakeyM says:
Well said, but we all need to realise that adding Solar in their property is an asset which could boost the future value of their property if / when they decide to sell. With the environment the way it is going we are unable to overlook any product or service that supplies totally free electricity at no cost to both the consumer and more importantly the world!
Magnetic Energy says:
People have been producing their own electricity for years now. I read about it on the tesla website.
Magnetic Energy says:
People have been producing their own electricity for years now. I read about it on the tesla website.