By James Sherwood 4th September 2007 12:16 GMT http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/04/nopopo The trouble with batteries is that there never seems to be a power socket in sight when you want to charge them up. Thankfully, one manufacturer has developed a battery that should be slightly easier to recharge, thanks to its ability to run off a variety of liquids, including water and urine. Dubbed NoPoPo, the battery has been developed by the Japanese company Aqua Power System and comes in standard AA and AAA formats. Although, larger capacities for use as auxiliary power supplies have been rumoured. Pee-powered battery unveiled ![]()
The NoPoPo battery The AA and AAA batteries can be recharged with a variety of liquids, inserted into the chamber via a pipette and the basic principle is that a mixture of magnesium and carbon reacts when mixed with a liquid to produce, in the case of the AA battery, up to 500 milliamp-hours (mAh) of life. This puts them on a par with existing zinc-carbon AA batteries; however, existing alkaline batteries have a longer life of between 1700 and 3000 mAh. ________________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?39041 While alkaline batteries are hazardous to the environment, and some say that the design of lithium batteries is inherently flawed, scientists are trying to figure out a new way to store energy. A Japanese company is hoping it may have hit the jackpot with one such idea. By pouring any liquid (be it water, gasoline, Powerade, or urine) into the battery, a customer starts a reaction of the chemicals inside the battery (magnesium and carbon) and the liquid, producing energy. "NoPoPo" comes in your standard AA and AAA designs, can hold a charge for up to 10 years (though, it can be recharged far less times than a comparable lithium-ion battery), and is only available in Japan. There is no reference as to when and if we will see this in America or Europe. ________________________________________________________________________________________ New Battery Type Runs Off Any Liquid...Including Urine