Energy Harvest
Our body uses immense amounts of energy in order to go about our daily lives comfortably. But have you ever wondered how much of that energy is wasted? Just our fat content alone is said to be comparable to a one-ton battery. So how can we use this energy to do things like power cell phones?
Everyone has heard of crank radios or crank televisions that turn the kinetic energy we create with our arm, into mechanical, then electrical energy. There is a gym in Portland, Oregon that uses this concept on its stationary bikes and treadmills, however the energy produced is only enough to meet a small amount of the gym's energy requirements. But as this concept adapts and advances, this could be used for more than just bikes. Dance clubs are also getting in on the action. In the Netherlands, Rotterdam’s new Club WATT has a floor that harnesses the energy created by the dancers’ steps. Designed by a Dutch company called the Sustainable Dance Club, the floor is based on the piezoelectric effect, in which certain materials produce an electric current when compressed or bent. As for now, the amount of energy produced by the dancers (about 20W) is only enough to power the floor's LEDs, but with time, the club is hoping that the dancing will provide 60% of their power needs.
Max Donelan of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, is developing an electromagnetic generator fitted to a standard knee brace. The prototype for his brace is said to get a 30 minute phone conversation out of a one-minute walk. In order to ensure that the device takes only excess bodily energy, there is a computer to measure the angle of the knee and determines when to engage or disengage the generator. The device only kicks in during the swing phase, when your muscles are relaxing, in order to prevent any hindrances. The Canadian military is helping to fund this project because of the load of batteries soldiers carry to power communication devices and the like. Another energy harvester is Larry Rome's "Lightning Pack" that is a backpack turning the natural up and down motion of your hips into energy. However, the bag is very heavy for most people (80 pounds) and generates as much as the dance floor.
The most seemingly far-fetched of the energy harvesting devices in development today would be clothing that captures the movements of your body and transforms them into electricity by using zinc-oxide crystals on yarnlike Kevlar fibers, that when rubbed against each other produce electricity. However, the energy created is a mere 16 trillionths of a watt. The researchers hope that with enough of these woven into clothing, it could produce enough energy to power a cell phone.
As technology advances and our understanding grows, we may not even have to be conscious to generate power for our daily lives. Some day, taking a 30 minute jog may be enough to fully charge your iPod, your cell phone, or even something greater.
Everyone has heard of crank radios or crank televisions that turn the kinetic energy we create with our arm, into mechanical, then electrical energy. There is a gym in Portland, Oregon that uses this concept on its stationary bikes and treadmills, however the energy produced is only enough to meet a small amount of the gym's energy requirements. But as this concept adapts and advances, this could be used for more than just bikes. Dance clubs are also getting in on the action. In the Netherlands, Rotterdam’s new Club WATT has a floor that harnesses the energy created by the dancers’ steps. Designed by a Dutch company called the Sustainable Dance Club, the floor is based on the piezoelectric effect, in which certain materials produce an electric current when compressed or bent. As for now, the amount of energy produced by the dancers (about 20W) is only enough to power the floor's LEDs, but with time, the club is hoping that the dancing will provide 60% of their power needs.
Max Donelan of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, is developing an electromagnetic generator fitted to a standard knee brace. The prototype for his brace is said to get a 30 minute phone conversation out of a one-minute walk. In order to ensure that the device takes only excess bodily energy, there is a computer to measure the angle of the knee and determines when to engage or disengage the generator. The device only kicks in during the swing phase, when your muscles are relaxing, in order to prevent any hindrances. The Canadian military is helping to fund this project because of the load of batteries soldiers carry to power communication devices and the like. Another energy harvester is Larry Rome's "Lightning Pack" that is a backpack turning the natural up and down motion of your hips into energy. However, the bag is very heavy for most people (80 pounds) and generates as much as the dance floor.
The most seemingly far-fetched of the energy harvesting devices in development today would be clothing that captures the movements of your body and transforms them into electricity by using zinc-oxide crystals on yarnlike Kevlar fibers, that when rubbed against each other produce electricity. However, the energy created is a mere 16 trillionths of a watt. The researchers hope that with enough of these woven into clothing, it could produce enough energy to power a cell phone.
As technology advances and our understanding grows, we may not even have to be conscious to generate power for our daily lives. Some day, taking a 30 minute jog may be enough to fully charge your iPod, your cell phone, or even something greater.
posted by dylandacy at 9:25 AM
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