Sugar-powered phone concept robs us of perfectly good Coke

This wouldn't be the first time we've seen a sugar fuel cell, but gosh darnit, it just might be the sexiest. Chinese designer Daizi Zheng has conjured up a vision for a soft drink-powered cylindrical Nokia of the future that pounds Coca-Colas to stay juiced: just screw off the top, pop the can, and pour. Daizi estimates that a single can of the stuff could outlast a traditional lithium ion battery by three to four times -- never mind the obvious ecological benefits -- but don't you dare steal our caffeine the next time you need a charge, alright?

[Thanks, Rob]

[HW90 Posted Jan 12th 2010 2:43AM]

does discount supermarket brand count?

[Avedis Posted Jan 12th 2010 2:48AM]

Need sugar... in water...

[logicbombde Posted Jan 12th 2010 1:17PM]

@Avedis

Noisy Cricket

[Generic Posted Jan 12th 2010 2:50AM]

This phone needs some diet coke.

[Condiment Posted Jan 12th 2010 3:30AM]

@condimentstation Name theif! I guess I should be flattered...

[RikF Posted Jan 12th 2010 3:35AM]

The obvious ecological benefits? Putting aside the levels of hazardous materials in the fuel cell versus the battery until we know exactly what makes up the cell, do you honestly think that there is less energy used refilling that battery 3 or 4 times than is used in the production and shipping of a can of coke? Really?

[iRawr Posted Jan 12th 2010 3:45AM]

when i first saw it i thought it was a light-saber phone. and i went

FIANLLYYYYYYYY

[Dark2water Posted Jan 12th 2010 4:42AM]

Awesome concept! The only problem is I can't see how this could work with air travel!?!?

[Oli D Posted Jan 12th 2010 5:22AM]

@Dark2water Lol, if you're joking, well done.

[devitus Posted Jan 12th 2010 4:46AM]

This is so Star Wars!

[Ark Posted Jan 12th 2010 5:18AM]

can you drink the coke after?

[jonwil Posted Jan 12th 2010 5:19AM]

If this works as advertised, someone may have actually found a USE for that undrinkable sludge in the blue bottle (Pepsi I think its called)

[Jode Posted Jan 12th 2010 5:23AM]

But will it run on Pepsi?

[Jode Posted Jan 12th 2010 5:24AM]

@Jode - damn, 4 mins too slow.

[Diesel1313 Posted Jan 12th 2010 6:09AM]

What about sugar free beverages ? Will they work to ?

Im sorry I just could not resist asking that question :P

[Palmer Posted Jan 12th 2010 7:14AM]

Chris Ziegler, do you truly believe that if we all start using a can of coke every few days to charge the 950 million mobile phones sold last year alone, that it would be ecologically beneficial?

that must be 90 billion cans of coke more we have to produce a year. you do use electricity to make coke you know, and oil to transport it, and chop down trees to grow the sugar cane to produce it.

I seriously doubt any of that will come as a benefit to the planet.

[anonymouspam Posted Jan 12th 2010 7:33AM]

No free refills.

[Blackstar Posted Jan 12th 2010 7:46AM]

@condimentstation

Speaking of work, think of the new excuses people will now use to seal your drink from the office fridge.

"Dude, I'm sorry, I had to make a call!"

Personally, I'd love to see this used in hand held radios, flashlights, home phones, portable emergency equipment, etc. Sounds like it's a neat possibility for a lot of handheld electronics.

[buoy Posted Jan 12th 2010 8:22AM]

how about we have a wind-up phone, like those old alarm clocks... so you wind them every few hours... keep your wrists and fingers healthy.

or get a squeezer phone... squeeze them to charge them. or a phone you charge by simply moving it around. you guys remember those in watches? does this scale to the power-levels for phones or ...

... yeah i like lithium ions myself.

[fonsii Posted Jan 12th 2010 8:38AM]

i do recall 600ml coca cola in china being 50c a bottle. now that's cheap power

[jtalcott Posted Jan 12th 2010 8:55AM]

"never mind the obvious ecological benefits"

Not to point out the (what should be) blindingly obvious, but energy is slightly lost at every step as it is converted, and growing sugar, producing a cola and then distributing it as an energy source is blindingly inefficient. If everyone's phone required soda to run, prices would inevitably go up with increased demand and we would be forced to use a disproportionately large amount of our resources to producing cola. Why not convert our cars to soda as well? Or our homes?

There are certainly energy sources which are cleaner or greener than oil and coal, but this is NOT a practical one.

[Pies Posted Jan 12th 2010 9:32AM]

I don't see how this idea has any ecological benefits, quite the contrary. Sugary drinks don't grow in malls, you know?

[Timerider Posted Jan 12th 2010 9:42AM]

It also looks like the pepsi bottle from BTTF2.

[DougieBear Posted Jan 12th 2010 10:33AM]

The phone is nice but her other projects are just shite, from a design perspective.

[Chas Percodani Posted Jan 12th 2010 10:52AM]

So will they include some kind of charging time on the nutritional facts of the coke?

[F C Posted Jan 12th 2010 1:01PM]

@condimentstation
Besides that, charging a depleted lithium ion cell will cost pennies vs a can of cola. And the 1:3 or 1:4 runtime may be for feature phones; smartphones will drink that stuff.

[lee045 Posted Jan 12th 2010 1:12PM]

How running a device on a Vault

[Dan Fruzzetti Posted Jan 12th 2010 1:57PM]

Just to clarify, you would properly feed it a specialized liquid-energy mixture that was not too tasty as food (even if non-toxic). You would be able to feed it beverages in a pinch, but at less energy density and with the negative effect that you'd have to clean it out really well afterwards.

[Pookiewood Posted Jan 12th 2010 5:39PM]

If you press the right buttons to make the tones play Funky Town will a Light Saber Blade come out of the top?