Yeast and sugar generator can power cellphones, but how does it work?
By Nilay Patel 
posted Dec 3rd 2007 2:46PM
posted Dec 3rd 2007 2:46PM
[Via Afrigadget]
posted Dec 3rd 2007 2:46PM
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yeast + sugar = ethanol
And also CO2. Maybe he's pressurizing the C02 and then using it to turn a turbine -> generator.
So it'll power your small electronics AND get you drunk. Brilliant!
Yeast + Sugar = heat + CO2
@Joe "Yeast + Sugar = heat + CO2"
So does that mean a new kind of overheating, exploding battery ???
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...).
Maybe he works for Steorn.
Clearly this man has hit upon the perpetual motion machine.
"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"
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.
...And in other news, sarcasm died today in a blazing inferno at 3:45pm. Details at 5.
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
You normally ride your cell-phone home?
You normally ride your cell-phone home?
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.
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!!
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.
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
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!
Let me get this straight....
This thing runs on cake?
But... but I thought it was a lie?
0_o
But a newton is just fruit and cake!
Wait a second... I love cake! Cake powers me to use cellphones, OLPCs, and medical devices for up to eight hours.
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!
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.
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.
Neato, but isn't the point of this whole global warming movement to cut CO2 emissions?
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).
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
To Al Gore
S my D!
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.
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.
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.
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.
If I pour wheat and cocoa in it, will the by product be Oreos?
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.
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
i saw this on mr. wizard.
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
Oh wonderful... Another contraption that produces greenhouse gas...
Yes, ban bread! Ban beer! Wine, too! CO2 MUST BE STOPPED AT ALL COSTS!
Most big breweries contain/reuse their co2.
@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.
Which the end user consumes and converts to methane... ANOTHER greenhouse gas....
but can it power doom
It obviously oscillates in tune with Chuck Norris' heartbeat drawing dark energy from him. Unlimited power source FTW!
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.
Godwin's Law (revised):
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Chuck Norris approaches one.
Is it a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor?
NOICE!
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...