Potato power for organic electric batteries

Here’s a story that caught Gadget Master’s ever-roving eye – Potato Power – “Potato Batteries for Use in the Developing World”

A company is investigating using boiled potatoes to provide a green and inexpensive answer to the low power energy needs in third-world areas, lacking access to electrical infrastructure.

Yissum Research Development Company is introducing a solid organic electric battery based upon treated potatoes. Its findings have recently been published in journals and featured in the Research Highlights section of Nature.

Apparently, researchers at the Hebrew University have discovered that the “enhanced salt bridge capability” of treated potato tubers can generate electricity through means readily available in the developing world.

They believe the treated potato battery generates energy, which is five to 50 folds cheaper than commercially available 1.5 Volt D cells and Energizer E91 cells, respectively. The clean light powered by this green battery is also at least 6 times more economical than kerosene lamps often used in the developing world, they say.

“The ability to provide electrical power with such simple and natural means could benefit millions of people in the developing word, literally bringing light and telecommunication to their life in areas currently lacking electrical infrastructure,” said Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum.

Yissum Research Development Company was founded from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 1964, to help commercialize the university’s IP.