Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Alternative means of generating 12V electricity?

I live on a barge in London. I'm posting from a laptop with a modem.

There are several ways of generating electricity, I mostly use a mains generator and although it's a quiet one, I still turn it off at 9.30 pm to avoid annoying people on neighbouring boats.

We also have an invertor which converts 12V dc from the batteries into 240v ac but that doesn't last very long.

Many people with permanant moorings have wind turbines to top up their batteries but this is not practcal if you are constantly on the move because you have to take them down to get under bridges.

Other people have solar panels but it's not too sunny here.

Any other ideas people?

SUBJECT: Geobacter species
[9-30-2004]

RE: Excerpted from Gifted Microbe Transforms Waste into Power, by Robert S. Boyd (Knight Ridder newspapers)July 25,2004.

The U.S. Deparfnent of Energy, Pentagon, and National Science Foundation are funding research on the properties of the Geobacter class of bacteria:
--turn (highly radioactive) uranium waste into harmless muck
--generate electricity from rust
--generate electricity from garbage
--generate enough electricity to run a toy car
--perform other useful work. [...like charging batteries?]

Geobacter (Geo.) was discovered in 1987 in Potomac River mud in Washington DC by biologist Derek Lovely, Head of the Geo. Project based at Univ. of Massachusetts in Amherst. So far, 20 series of Geo. genus are recognized, plus 30 closely related.

Geo. likes vinegar so Geo. can be fed cheaply to propagate, doubling in 24 hours.
Geo. are harmless to the environment-they're already everywhere in almost any soil.
Geo. is also used to turn petroleum byproducts, e.g.,benzene (a carcinogen) to carbon dioxide.

Geo. makes electricity from rust. The microbe removes an electron from one type (valence) iron atoms, Fe-2 and converts it to Fe-30 ordinary rust. The electron travels along a wire, from a positive to a negative pole, like a miniature battery.
...Such power could be used in less developed countries to charge batteries, run a radio, TV, or PC, or light a small hut.

And Geo. generates electricity from garbage. Although only a tiny amount of electricity in the lab, it is more efficient than burning biomass, e.g., wood, cornstalks, trash.
Lovely claims Geo. can recover 80 to 90%o of the energy potential in iron, compared with an average of 30% of the energy stored in biomass by traditional means.
"We're efficient but slow, and trying to get fast."
The Defense Departnent is interested in using energy in iron-rich mud on the sea bottom to power submarine detectors and other sensors.

-Summary
prepared by R. Beatty, CFRI: File, CFR40930
http://www.sustainablenuclear.org/PADs/pad0407boyd.pdf
or
http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:gu4gLVaOjXQJ:www.sustainablenuclear.org/PADs/pad0407boyd.pdf+garbage+%22charge+batteries%22+soil&hl=en&gl=us
.
.
.
...and
http://uaelp.pennnet.com/display_article...rganic-matter-/



Andist....
Got any rust, garbage, or mud out there?

~

Samwik, thanks! We have plenty of garbage and mud but because we have a steel hull, I don't like thinking about rust.

I'll have to look into that in more detail.

Yep, plenty of garbage & mud on the river bed and quite a bit on the banks too.

I'm about to try this in a plastic bucket. I shall stick two bits of wire in to act as electrodes and fill the bucket with some water and bits of vegetable matter, mud and rusty pieces of metal and anything else I can find.

Here goes. I have an electrical test meter to moniter any progress.

I have only quarter filled the bucket with water, vegetables, leaves, sawdust and rusty bits of metal.

I got an initial reading of 0.07V but I'll test int from time to time as the matter disolves and decomposes.

This looks promising

oh yeah, should I use salt as a catalyst or would that not help by acting as a preservative?

Hi Andist,

Good going--it'll be interesting to hear what happens.

Salt would probably kill the bacteria (preservative--as you say).

I'm not very electric-circuit minded, but don't you want one electrode in the bucket and the other "grounded" somewhere else? I really don't know about that stuff.

I know I've seen a demo of this setup somewhere on the net.
I'll look around and see if I can find it.

Later,
~

p.s. The little beasties like vinegar, so maybe a few drops would work as an electrolyte.

Some good points made above.

I'll try to find some exposed steel on the boat as a cathode.

I get no reading on the meter if I use the steel on the boat as a cathode. Also, my readings within the bucket are down on yesterday. Too much vinegar I think. Time to fill the bucket to the top with water to dilute it.

1) Tried using exposed steel on hull as electrode - no reading.

2) filled bucket with water to dilute water but could not test water first due to the type of container it was in. Readings ba up to what they were yesterday

Andist

find an old fan blade , mount a shaft through it , support it on both ends of the shaft , build a floatation vessel for it or use a old rubber intertube , add a rudder to use to possition the fan blade in the current , attach a steel cable to the shaft and the other end of the cable to a 12 volt car starter or bicycle generator's shaft , you can charge up your batteries 24 / 7 using the waters current...

when the water flows past the fan blade it will turn the fan blade , turning the cable and the generator = electricity.

weaker current ! use larger fan ...
want more electricity use a step up gear ratio from an old washing machine to hook up between the cable and generator...
I would write more but the reply box is messing up...

AHHA...using note pad to write with then COPY-N-PASTE into the reply box !!!

your barge uses a fan or propeller to move around when it moves , the propeller is powered by an engine , the reverse of this would be clutching of the propeller away from the engine and into
a generator to use for braking !!! wow what a concept!!!

you could probably generate enought electricity stopping your barge to last ALL NIGHT...

--------------
CLUTCHING
--------------

cheaply... mount a large split riding lawn mower belt pulley on the drive/prop shaft between the engine and prop , mount a automobile aircondition compressor electric clutch to another pulley
wire the clutch to your dash board.

mount the clutch to your generator

when you are stopping your barge place the prop into neutral and energize the clutch , the prop should still turn and turn the generator.

Some very good ideas there paul! Thanks.
I'll see what I can do to put some of them into practice.

I shall have to print this thread out!

there has been progress overnight. I now get a reading of 0.12V getting there.

[quote=Mike Kremer]
After 3 days and one bucket, you get a reading of 0.12volt.!
As a science experimenter you are doing quite well.
You only need to buy another 100 buckets to get your 12 volts.
Dont forget to wire them all up in series.
However I am extremely worried that you might not be able to communicate with us.... unless you do something drastic.
So you live on a barge in London huh? Well you are a lucky man.
Now I suggest you get off your barge, jump on the Northern Underground line to Camden town. At Camden Town walk over to Parkway Rd.
There you will find "Maplins Electronics" which is only 3 mins walk from the underground exit.
Go inside Maplins entrance....and straight in front of you, you will see a basket full of Solar-panels (each no bigger than a standard PC keyboard).
They are specially designed to keep your lead acid CAR BATTERY charged up.
They give out 14 volts, and will charge your car size battery even if there is NO sun. (Since Solar Cells will always give out their voltage in light....a stronger light just allows them to produce more power! (amps) and charge up quicker)
At the moment they are 1/2 price, selling at £9.0 each (normally £18.0)
Absolute bargain !! I suggest you buy two.
Here is their phone number. Phone them immediately and get them to keep you two....They wont last long.!
Maplin Electronics.... 15-23 Parkway Camden London NW1 7PG
Tel:0207 482 4879.

Thanks Mike K. It's a while since I went to maplins. There is one on Wood green high St. I'll have to call them and see if they have any in stock althogh they probably have.

I'll also have to see how it's going with this bucket tomorrow.

Thanks mike.

Mike
I looked these up because they sounded like a good way to charge a battery bank and at a good price.

the trouble is that you would need 24 of these to power a single 24 watt cfl bulb !!!

they only have an output of 1 watt...

which means if you used the charger for three whole days
you would have stored enought electricity to burn the cfl light bulb 1 hour !!!

if you use a 100 watt incandessant bulb you would need to charge the battery for 12.5 days to burn the bulb for 1 hour.

using a bicycle generator and a small fan to turn the generator with , such as this one

HERE 12 Volt @ 6 watts

1 pound = 1.6 dollars
apx 10.3 pounds british

6 watts / 12 volts = .5 Amps

.5 amp hours x 24 hours = 12.5 amp hours

12 volts x 12.5 amp hours = 150 watts charging capacity per day.

you could burn 6.25 24 watt cfl bulbs for 1 hour every day using the bicycle generator...

even if the sun does not ever shine the river will keep flowing.

LOL

Another good idea, thanks paul!