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BYU professors develop sweet new power source

Potato battery? | 4:16 a.m. Oct. 12, 2009

Sounds like a new twist on the potato battery with some high tech jibberish. This doesn't sound feasible as a reliable power supply, mixing herbicide and potato mash. Instead of carrying a backpack you'd have to carry wet sack around with you.

It would help the Idaho potato farmers though and shoot the cost of potatoes out of sight just like it did with corn as a biofuel.

Sneaky Jimmy | 11:02 a.m. Oct. 12, 2009

Didn't BYU harness Cold Fusion a few year ago too?

Sorry Sneaky | 11:36 a.m. Oct. 12, 2009

That was the elite team at U of U.

Comments continue below

l slade | 11:36 a.m. Oct. 12, 2009

I think it was the U of U that did the cold fusion confusion.

Anonymous | 11:55 a.m. Oct. 12, 2009

that was definitely the University of Utah

Reed Richards | 11:59 a.m. Oct. 12, 2009

I would not rule out Hydrogen as an alt fuel.

There is a method being worked on to produce & then extract it from Algae.

If memory serves, No platinum is needed to develop from this source of Hydrogen.

Gary the Engineer | 12:00 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

It's truly astounding that the principles in this remarkable development are named Watt, and because the automobile could be a major use of this power, Wheeler.

The Rock | 12:26 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

I read this on the BYU web site last week.

Nobody wants to say what the herbicide is. I would love some more technical information, diagrams, chemical reactions, etc.

To date the articles have all stated: "We have this really neat technology, I'd have to kill you if I showed it to you."

I would risk death...

To Rock | 1:17 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

The BYU news release that you read links to the scientific article. You can get all the technical specs you want from there.

John Harvey | 1:29 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

Excellent, our society (and the world) needs sources of energy which are less harmful. This may turn out to be a critical piece of the future energy puzzle.

Barney Fife | 1:52 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

Didn't Doc Brown already invent this to power his flux capacitor?

Cold Fusion | 2:06 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

Yes, Pons & Fleischman at the U of U did work on cold fusion. However, Steven Jones the 9/11 truther (BYU) also did some work on that one.

At least the BYU researchers published an article on their new idea, I hope it was experimental and that it actually worked!

Aston Filbard Cunningham IV | 2:18 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

Nice pink background in that photo, quite manly.

Hungry | 2:21 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

When will we see that energy made from food sources is more of a danger to humanity than a help? When the price of corn shot up, the world's poor suffered immensely. For those spending 60-80% of their annual income on food, a small price increase is the difference of surviving and starving (by the way, that's about two-thirds of the world). We should be looking for alternative energy from sources that aren't already used for human energy.

What in tucket? | 2:36 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

I think this is exciting. In the meantime let's use natural gas as the interim energy source.

wallofvoodoo | 3:59 p.m. Oct. 12, 2009

Hey Aston, real men wear pink! Hungry, anything with glucose molecules in it will work for this technology. We waste tons of stuff in landfills that could be used a fuels, none of it food. & that is just the stuff made out of glucose molecules. Imagine if we were able to efficiently & cleanly turn all our waste into fuel.

By product=CO2? | 2:02 a.m. Oct. 13, 2009

Oh oh! Al Gore ain't gonna like this one bit!

Dawn | 8:12 a.m. Oct. 13, 2009

The fuel cell vehicle will be a great asset and help with our dependency of foreign oil. My question is why did President Obahma cut the federal spending on this???

ATC | 9:53 a.m. Oct. 13, 2009

This uses food waste and other things we don't uses, so it wouldn't be like ethanol where specifically corn is needed, so I think it is a pretty cool idea and could work in the future.

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1 photo

Mark A. Philbrick

Chemical engineering professor Dean Wheeler shows a fuel cell — basically a battery with a gas tank — that harvests electricity from carbohydrates. It was developed by BYU researchers.