This was posted at freenrg-l;
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The following is a excerpt from "PC Authority" magazine June issue.
Would be easily adaptable to Methane, given the right diet. Would you
please plug in my laptop dear?
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(small snip)
The device, a shirt-button sized generator, promises to extend laptop
battery life by at least 20 times. Despite its size, the button
generator effectively mirrors the technology of a jet engine, claims
Alan Epstein (MIT), the generator's designer. "It is a lot of fun to do.
It's not really a case of scaling jet technology down but scaling
microelectronics up", he says.
The generator, says Epstein, is a Micro Electro Mechanical (MEM) system,
and works in a similar way to a conventional jet engine. Air is
compressed and mixed with the fuel (diesel or petrol). This in turn
burns in a combustion chamber and turns the generator.Epstein claims
early prototypes can generate up to 50W of power.
MIT's generator also promises a better price performance ratio, with
pricing expected to be on a par with conventional Lithium ion batteries.
"I think it will be competitively priced. The initial outlay will be
cheaper than buying a battery, and when it runs out all you will have to
do is replace the fuel", says Epstein.
It is likely tthat real life special agents will be the first to get
their hands on the technology as the US military is paying for the
research. The rest of us will just have to wait until around the year
2002.
-- Jerry W. Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science" Voice : (214) 324-8741 / FAX : (214) 324-3501 KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187