Electricity From Salty Water 301
BuzzSkyline writes "It's possible to produce energy by simply mixing fresh and salty water. Although chemists and physicists have long known about the untapped energy available where fresh water rivers pour into salty oceans — it's equivalent to 'each river in the world ending at its mouth in a waterfall 225 meters [739 feet] high' — the technology for exploiting the effect has been lacking. An Italian physicist seems to have solved the problem with the experimental demonstration of a 'salination cell' that creates power given nothing more than input sources of salty and fresh water. The researcher believes that this renewable, environmentally friendly energy source could be deployed in coastal areas and could provide another addition to the green-tech roster. A paper describing the technology is due to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Physical Review Letters."
Quick! Grab all your salt shakers and run to the b (Score:5, Funny)
If only the professor knew. (Score:5, Funny)
he key ingredient in a salt-water capacitor is "activated carbon," extremely porous carbon made from wood, coal, or coconut shells.
Gilligan could have lived well on that island.
Do I get get peak or off-peak rates... (Score:2, Funny)
...for pissing in a swimming pool?
The water battery: now a reality! (Score:4, Funny)
Urine Powered Society (Score:5, Funny)
A device that gleans usable energy from the mixing of salty and fresh waters has been developed by University of Milan-Bicocca physicist Doriano Brogioli. If scaled up, the technology could potentially power coastal homes, though some scientists caution that such an idea might not be realistic.
Forget scaling it up. Put one such device in every fresh water toilet bowl.
Too late (Score:4, Funny)
Too late, Exxon already bought the patent.
Re:What about the fishies? (Score:5, Funny)
PETA and Greenpeace both called and said it'll kill too many endagered fish species.
Dang it! I warned these people. Last month I sent them a letter:
Dear PETA,
While I love animals as much as the next guy, I'm sick and tired of your stupid press releases. You do more harm than good by making animal lovers seem rediculous to the general public.
Therefore, I have no choice but to make you reconsider your PR tactics. Starting next week, any time you issue a press release that does animals more harm than good, I'm going to the pet store, and buying a hampster. Then I'm going to take it out in the parking lot and hit it with a shovel.
Sincerely,
LocalMan57
Re:Economy is a Subset of Ecology (Score:5, Funny)
Re:neat (Score:5, Funny)
This would be a great way to power all those desalinization plants on the coast!
Re:Economy is a Subset of Ecology (Score:5, Funny)
I thought our food chain was Sun -> Corn -> Cows/Pigs/Chickens -> Cows/Pigs/Chickens -> Dinner.
Re:Double Duty? (Score:2, Funny)
in a car analogy please.
Re:Maybe someday PISSING in the WIND can become (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Economy is a Subset of Ecology (Score:5, Funny)
I thought our food chain was Sun -> Corn -> Cows/Pigs/Chickens -> Cows/Pigs/Chickens -> Dinner.
We have a backup system:
??? -> Taco Bell -> Dinner.
Re:What about the fishies? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:What about the fishies? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Brilliant, Holmes, brilliant! (Score:4, Funny)
It isn't a water problem, it's a stupid people problem.
But people are mostly made of water, so now you have a stupid water problem...
Re:Economy is a Subset of Ecology (Score:5, Funny)
And Taco bell is environmentally friendly as they use non-organic material to construct their food out of.
Re:Economy is a Subset of Ecology (Score:3, Funny)
Indeed, the free market will sort it out. Like for instance, dodo eggs got really expensive, so the price went up, fewer people bought dodo eggs, so the price went down... um... hang on.
Re:If only the professor knew. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Double Duty? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Economy is a Subset of Ecology (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks for pointing out my lack of grammar Mr. Commissar.
It is much being appreciated by me.
Re:What about the fishies? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Double Duty? (Score:5, Funny)
I donmt understanf i poored five rum nf cokes and this made les ssens each time