New Power Source Found in Water

EDMONTON, Alberta (UPI) — Canadian scientists at the University of Alberta have discovered a new way to create electricity using water, the BBC reported Monday. “What we have achieved so far is to show that electrical power can be directly generated from flowing liquids in microchannels,” said Professor Larry Kostiuk of the University of Alberta. The team says its “electrokinetic” battery could be further developed to provide a clean, non-polluting power source that could eventually drive small devices such as mobile phones. It is said to be the first new method of generating electricity in more than 150 years. The team created a glass block, one inch in diameter and 1.5 inches thick, containing about 400,000 to 500,000 individual channels. Because of a phenomenon called the electric double layer, when water flows through the 10-micron-diameter-wide channels, a positive charge is created at one end of the block and a negative charge at the other, just like a conventional battery.