Producing electricity thanks to the displacement of water is, on paper, a simple idea. But since the invention of the hydraulic turbine, used all over the world, many other explored tracks have proven to be less convincing. A team of researchers from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore has developed an original solution, published in the journal ACS Central ScienceApril 16.
Faced with the two extreme solutions, of the hydroelectric power station, which requires very large volumes of water, to the production of a current by water passing through nanotubes, which requires an electric pump canceling the energy profit, they have chosen tubes of 2 millimeters in diameter, in which water can flow by its only weight. Their find is to ensure that it flows in small packages, like drops of rain separated from air bubbles.
This intermittent flow, “in piston”, write the researchers, creates by friction with the conductive walls of the tube a separation of loads, the negative ions escaping to leave a positive load to the water. The polarity differential between the input and output of such a 32 -cent meter long made it possible to light several continuous LEDs. The device has converted to electricity more than 10 % of the energy of the water falling into the tubes. And the circuit developed here has produced five times more electricity for the same amount of water than a system with continuous flow.
“Inexpensive and ecological”
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