Forums: Battery Charger

Leigh Krietsch Boerner/Boston, US Mitochondria, often called the powerhouse of the cell, have been harnessed in a new battery-like device that could one day power small portable devices like mobile phones or laptops. Mitochondria convert fatty acids and pyruvate, formed from the digestion of sugars and fats, to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the cell's energy supply. Along the way a tiny electrical current is generated, and Shelley Minteer and coworkers from Saint Louis University in Missouri, US, have now harnessed those flowing electrons to put them to work in a new biological battery device.  Speaking at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Boston, US, Minteer described how her team has...

TEPCO installs long-life sodium-sulfur batteries for distribution network applications. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has established large-scale power generation facilities, including base-load nuclear power plants and high-efficiency thermal peak-load generators, to supply the peak summer demand, which exceeds 60 GW. The utility provides electrical energy to Japan's capital city, Tokyo, an area of dense domestic and industrial customers. To meet the 60-GW summer demand, TEPCO has installed load-leveling technology in the form of pumped storage hydroelectric plants to improve system utilization, but there is now a shortage of suitable sites for these peak-load generation plants. One solution to the...