Batteries are dangerous.  If left unused in a product for an long time, they can can leak and ruin the product. Damage to alkaline batteries can cause the potassium hydroxide to leak , which could cause severe chemical burns. And if exposed to extreme heat – batteries can  burst like a bomb, spewing hot, caustic chemicals in all directions.

Not only that but they are not environmentally friendly or cost effective. A set of 4 alkaline batteries costing $2.74 has a capacity of about 0.0171 kilowatt-hours. This corresponds to a cost of $160.23 per kilowatt-hour! In contrast, residential electricity costs about $0.06 per kilowatt-hour.  Batteries are about 267,000% more expensive per kilowatt-hour than household electricity.

In the U.S. alone, 2.9 billion batteries are thrown away each year. Attempts have been made to improve the ability to recycle batteries. However, environmentally beneficial and cost-effective recycling technologies are not universally available.

Then there’s the potoato!

Potatoes have always provided healthy carbohydrate fuel to people.  Now Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has developed a “solid organic electric battery based upon treated potatoes” that is five to fifty times cheaper than commercial 1.5 volt D cells and Energizer e91 cell batteries. What’s more – the light generated from the potato battery is also at least 6 times more economical than kerosene lamps!

All that’s required to create a working potato battery is zinc, copper electrodes, and a slice of potato.  The researchers discovered that they could generate 10 times the power of a raw potato, by boiling the potato first – creating a battery that work for weeks at a time.  Imagine – your kids toys would run for weeks on end (rather than the frustrating few hours with batteries). And they won’t leak, blow up or burn anyone.

This isn’t the first time potatoes have been used outside food.  They are widely used by the pharmaceutical, textile, wood and paper industries as an adhesive, binder, texture agent and filler – and by oil drilling firms to wash boreholes. Potato starch is a 100% biodegradable substitute for polystyrene and other plastics and used, for example, in disposable plates, dishes and knives.

Potato peel and other “zero value” wastes from potato processing are liquefied and fermented to produce fuel-grade ethanol.

(A study in Canada’s potato-growing province of New Brunswick estimated that 44,000 tonnes of processing waste could produce 4 to 5 million litres of ethanol).

Don’t forget that potatoes are also used in Vodka.

This is the first time ever though – that potatoes are being considered to replace batteries.

Don’t hold your breath though – the potato battery will take a long time before it can appear in your store, but there are some possibilities on the horizon that potato-based medical implants could be used in  hospitals soon.

Personally, I look forward to the day when I replace my batteries with a potato.

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