Yeast and sugar generator can power cellphones, but how does it work?

This yeast-and-sugar powered generator invented by Dr. Cedrick Ngalande of Malawi can supposedly power cellphones, OLPCs, and medical devices for up to eight hours, but apart from a few vague guesses involving CO2, oscillating motion, and a couple Sharper Image desk toys we've got lying around, we're utterly at a loss to explain how it works. Ideas, leave 'em in comments!

[Via Afrigadget]

[paul @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:52PM]

yeast + sugar = ethanol

[murray @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:57PM]

And also CO2. Maybe he's pressurizing the C02 and then using it to turn a turbine -> generator.

[Andrew @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:11PM]

So it'll power your small electronics AND get you drunk. Brilliant!

[Joe @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:14PM]

Yeast + Sugar = heat + CO2

[Speedmonkay @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:32PM]

@Joe "Yeast + Sugar = heat + CO2"

So does that mean a new kind of overheating, exploding battery ???

[Cerium @ Dec 3rd 2007 11:17PM]

Has anyone ever seen a sterling engine? This looks a lot like one that simply has a self contained pressure and or heat source (no need for a candle...).

[murray @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:55PM]

Maybe he works for Steorn.

[Tim Batt @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:08PM]

Clearly this man has hit upon the perpetual motion machine.

[Homer J @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:29PM]

"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

[Chuckles McGee @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:45PM]

Except this doesn't violate any laws of thermodynamics. Yeast ferment the sugar into ethanol, which is then used to power the celly, I'm guessing. Not the most efficient form of power, but it's at least possible to get some juice from this method.

[John @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:25PM]

...And in other news, sarcasm died today in a blazing inferno at 3:45pm. Details at 5.

[pryam44 @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:42PM]

sorry this is coming 45 minutes late, couldnt get a ride home cause i ate all the sugar that powers my cellphone, had to walk

[Benson @ Dec 4th 2007 10:35AM]

You normally ride your cell-phone home?

[Benson @ Dec 4th 2007 10:35AM]

You normally ride your cell-phone home?

[tamoneya @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:02PM]

Looks to me like it is some kind of stirling engine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine#Alpha_Stirling
would be very efficent and the energy would come for the heat created by the yeast and the CO2 would act as the gas in the cylinders.

[Chris @ Dec 3rd 2007 11:52PM]

Actually, it would be very INefficient as far as Sterling engines go. The thermodynamic efficient is lowest with small temperature differences. Industrial sterling engines run with differences of 700C. Fermentation can only raise the temperature a degree or two, and even then, its usually needs heat supplied by the user to get into a fermentation range!

The more you know!!

[tamoneya @ Dec 3rd 2007 11:55PM]

i mean efficient in the sense that it is an efficient use of the heat energy as opposed to an efficient example of a stirling engine.

[Doctor Thinker @ Dec 16th 2007 6:53PM]

This is a social engineering solution.
1) You make booze with yeast and sugar
2) You trade the booze for batteries
3) You run your cellphone on the batteries

[mmh @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:09PM]

Pour sugar in container A, scale tips one way. Pour thy yeast in container B, scale tips the other way. And viola, Power we have!

[Esat @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:11PM]

Let me get this straight....

This thing runs on cake?

But... but I thought it was a lie?

0_o

[Jeff @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:51PM]

But a newton is just fruit and cake!

[Blink @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:03PM]

Wait a second... I love cake! Cake powers me to use cellphones, OLPCs, and medical devices for up to eight hours.

[thethirdmoose @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:23PM]

Well, you see, you use the yeast to make the cake, and this also produces power for your device. When you eat the cake, it produces power for you, and you generate body heat, it is once again used for power. Triple Whammy!

[clintwichert @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:24PM]

Seems like I've seen something like this before. I think it has to do with the temperature gradient between the 2 channels. I think the bioreaction chamber heats up the gas inside the chamber which lifts up, causing the ingrediants to shift to the other side, generating more hot gases and so forth.

[ashwinmudigonda @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:17PM]

Quite obviously what he is doing, and what you people are unable to see, is to use the transport of CO2 to tip the scales. The fulcrum, I am assuming, has some sort of magnet, so that, when the scales tip, there is an electric field generated. Note how the CO2 from one compartment can travel TOWARDS he second and then escape. There are 2 vents. The motion goes back and forth, assuming there is a valve that does not let the CO2 go back. It will exhaust when the yeast has converted all the sugar to alcohol. Quite ingenious if he has managed to pull it out.

[Andrew @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:27PM]

Neato, but isn't the point of this whole global warming movement to cut CO2 emissions?

[Scooter @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:43PM]

unless industrialised countries are a bit more generous with their technology and research, expect the developing countries to have a sharp increase in C02 emissions - and other nasties. Most developing countries were expempted from the Kyoto protocol (e.g. China, which is now developed enough that others are demanding they be part of the next agreement).

[Yevon @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:05PM]

Scooter, the US didn't sign the Kyoto treaty either. We have the highest pollution and the lowest standards of any developed nation. Jeeze, didn't you see An Inconvenient Truth?

Al Gore is sad you failed to see his Nobel winning movie. =P

[Paul @ Dec 3rd 2007 11:12PM]

To Al Gore


S my D!

[carl @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:29PM]

This thing was invented with readily-available power for small gadgets in Africa. However, if yeast is as expensive there as it is here (in the US), how are they going to afford it? Neat idea, but get them a little solar panel and be done with it.

[Davin @ Dec 4th 2007 2:04PM]

Yeast is not that expensive, plus if you harvest your yeast culture and keep adding food for it, it is pretty much self replicating.

Also as any home brewer can tell you, wild yeast is pretty common, it just produces the wrong levels unlike cultured yeasts.

[Andrew Jones @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:36PM]

Yeast is a living organism. Even with store-bought yeast packets you can 'reuse' the yeast by mixing the dry yeast, sugar, and water, letting it multiply for a while, then using a portion of that for whatever you're making. I should patent the idea and license it! I would need to come up with some novel term.. like sourdough, or something.

[carl @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:01PM]

Point taken, but it seems to me like a hassle to keep a yeast colony going in a place where water and sugar are scarce enough. It looks like an answer looking for a question. It's cool, ingenious, don't get me wrong, but practical? I'd still prefer a handcrank or solar panel.

[Homeboy @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:44PM]

If I pour wheat and cocoa in it, will the by product be Oreos?

[Crispin PP @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:01PM]

It uses the CO2 (which is CO2-neutral because it comes from biomass)to push a mass of liquid to the otehr tank and 'flips' over. Then it pushes the mass to the first side and 'flops'. As noted above, it continues until the sugar runs out. In the ambient temperature of Malawi it will run at a pretty good speed. The max power generated will be related to the mass and distance fallen. This sort of mechanism (not the yeast part) was used by a South African inventor called the 'Camel Pump'. Later he found that the reciprocating / falling mass was not nearly as good as a direct action by the pressure on a piston. I suspect the same here.

[CB @ Dec 4th 2007 1:28PM]

i know yeast and sugars ferment giving off alcohol and CO2 if temperatures are right, there is a ball valve on the right side, if it were some sort of blow off type valve i could see it rocking back and forth from using the C02 pressure to push stuff from one side to the other, blowing off the pressure and it falling back to the other side, like a see saw type movement, but since that looks like a ball valve i guess this doesn't do anybody much good, but i guess the pressure could push the stuff in a circular movement through all the pipes causing the movement and letting the pressure off with the valve when it all equals out to get it going again

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:19PM]

i saw this on mr. wizard.

[crunkMonkey101 @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:47PM]

They go over this in "Good Eats" during their "Cook a Battery" episode.

Alton Brown, what says you?

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea/article/0,1976,FOOD_9956_2245424,00.html

[SFO Kevin @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:13PM]

Oh wonderful... Another contraption that produces greenhouse gas...

[Ivan @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:20PM]

Yes, ban bread! Ban beer! Wine, too! CO2 MUST BE STOPPED AT ALL COSTS!

[Andrew @ Dec 3rd 2007 6:51PM]

Most big breweries contain/reuse their co2.

[Benson @ Dec 4th 2007 10:47AM]

@Andrew
Don't they ship their CO2 in the beverages? you know, the ones that fizz?

Yes, I know, you mean they recover the excess CO2, that doesn't stay in super-saturated sol'n, but I couldn't resist.

[SFO Kevin @ Dec 4th 2007 12:40PM]

Which the end user consumes and converts to methane... ANOTHER greenhouse gas....

[odemata @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:16PM]

but can it power doom

[saintchuck @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:38PM]

It obviously oscillates in tune with Chuck Norris' heartbeat drawing dark energy from him. Unlimited power source FTW!

[brian @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:55PM]

Wow! so all I have to do is wear this on my head and I can power my ipod for hours, that guys a geenyus! To bad this device is really a baby seal killing doomsday device created to melt the polar ice caps and make trees cry...

...in that case I'll take two.

[Galen @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:55PM]

Godwin's Law (revised):
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Chuck Norris approaches one.

[Fruition @ Dec 3rd 2007 6:35PM]

Is it a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor?

[Andrew @ Dec 3rd 2007 6:52PM]

NOICE!

[tekdroid @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:41PM]

Who woulda thunk that the brilliant minds at Steorn and my local Nigerian scammer would get together and 'generate' more hype with mere yeast and sugar!

Brill, I tell you!
On a somewhat related note, Steorn & the Good Doctor require your 'urgent assistance' to move x amount of venture capital slush funds before they dry up...