Christmas Battery waste equivalent to a column of batteries to the moon

Battery Powered Space Travel ‘Unveiled

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Every year, tens of billions of alkaline batteries from Christmas gadgets and toys are thrown into landfill as toxic waste. That’s enough rubbish batteries to build a column to the moon and back vs the greener alternative of using rechargeable batteries.

Yesterday saw Virgin Galactic’s announcement of SpaceShipTwo heralding a new dawn for commercial Space travel. Yet over at the Copenhagen climate summit, scientists and world leaders are wrestling with how to reduce our addictions on Energy for travel and Electricity demands of the modern age.

Scientists at Moixa Energy, the pioneering UK Cleantech company behind energy innovations such as re-usable USBCELL batteries, and low cost home energy systems, are researching future ideas.

Space columns or cables, according to the late Arthur C Clarke, could form Space Elevators, to provide lower carbon methods of traveling into geo-stationary orbit and beyond, due to the reduced amount of fuel burnt in the atmosphere, and recovery of energy from bringing meteorite/minerals back to Earth.

Moixa Energy postulates that perhaps rather than throwing batteries into landfill, which is soon to be illegal in the UK under the recent EU Batteries Directive, disposable batteries could be used as a scaffold or vine, on which to grow hyper strong carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes would be formed by ‘eating’ and cleansing C02 from the atmosphere, and releasing O2 and perhaps also use up residual energy left in the batteries.

The idea may seem far fetched, but scientists at Cambridge University are progressing developments on light-weight flexible nano-tubes, motivated by a $4m prize challenge from NASA.

Simon Daniel, Moixa CEO, who recently spent a couple of months at Singularity University at NASA, believes it is only a matter of time, and comments ‘Exponential technologies saw the time to sequence a genome fall from over 10 years to 2 weeks. Technology will be able to solve the problems of climate change if politics fail’.

In the meantime, Moixa Energy announced release of a special USBCELL Gaming pack, of 4 re-usable AA batteries that can recharge in USB ports on laptops, desktops and games consoles - to help save money and battery waste this Christmas. Earlier this week, they were chosen as a ‘Top 5’ stocking filler by the Gadget Show on Monday 8th Dec, and also won a top 50 iF Gold design award alongside Apple at Cebit from 3000 global products.

USBCELL batteries are available online and nationally at Morrisons, Waitrose and other leading stores. Each battery saves money, 7kg of C02 and 3kg of toxic landfill in basic reuse compared to disposables. A small but important practical action, ‘to fill stockings not landfill’ this Christmas, in the spirit of Copenhagen.

I have a set of two of those batteries, reviewed in the pages of this magazine here, and must say that I like the way of being able to recharge them via USB connection on my computer. The batteries can also, if need be, be recharged using an appropriate Ni-MH charger.

While, nominally, rechargeable batteries of this kind are 1.2 volt DC and not 1.5 volt. As indicated on so many devices, under normal circumstances one of those replaces a standard AA battery, no problem.

For more information contact info@usbcell.com, or see the website at www.usbcell.com

© 2009

<>

USB Cell by Moixa – Product Review

Rechargeable batteries you recharge on your PC's USB ports

by Michael Smith

I have wanted to be able to lay my hands on a set of these rechargeable AA batteries for quite some time already in order to do a review of them. Finally I have now managed to get a set of 2 of them.

Maybe I should add that these were not sent to me for review from the manufacturers or one or the other green vendor; they were picked up as a freebie, like the Eco-Button that time and which I also reviewed, on a trade fair I visited on behalf of the Green (Living) Review.

That shall not stop me, however, from reviewing those batteries for the readers of this journal – rather the opposite. In addition to those there shall be another couple of reviews be following, of some products and also a book, that we acquired in similar circumstances.

So, now first of let's have a look at the technical stuff for those batteries:

The battery type is rechargeable AA NiMH battery at 1.2v 1300mah with a built in intelligent charger and the charge by powered USB socket of PC or laptop

The battery chemistry is NiMH, that is to say, Nickel Metal Hyrdride. The batteries are 90%+ Charged after 5 Hours by powered USB and are also rechargeable by approved NiMH charger at 250ma for 7 Hours. I found that after about 7 hours on a USB they are also fully charged.

The retail unit is AA Batteries - 2 cell pack and the code for it is MXAA02. The price for UK is £10.99

Originally, it would appear that the batteries were sold in what I would refer to as blister pack but now they appear to come, for thus is how I got them, in just a cardboard carton with a cut out in the front and no plastic window or blister in sight. Nice to see this move.

After receiving those batteries I had to go out that evening to attend a press event in London. So, before I left from home I set the PC to run a deep systems anti-virus scan and at the same time took the opportunity to charge the USB Cells. Those were connected to the desktop PC via hubs and in less that seven hours, give or take a couple of minutes, they were fully charged and, from what I have seen so far, they perform very well and are of the same power grade as “normal” high grade AA batteries.

While it could be said that gadgets such as those may not be directly “green” - and I must say that only the tops are in that color – they do, definitely, fall under the category as they, during their lifetime and use, replace quite a number of traditional batteries; the kind that is not good for the environment.

Having said that I am aware that the USB Cells, like any other electronic gadget, must be recycled in a special way rather than going into the ordinary refuse. I do hope though, on the other hand, that they will not have to go there all that soon.

Traditional alkaline batteries = toxic landfill after one use

Each year, 15 billion batteries are made and disposed of which is the equivalent to a column of batteries to the moon and back.

USB CELL is, more than likely, the ultimate environmentally-friendly battery, though in itself, I know it is still a battery which is, though I am no scientist, made of some nasty materials still. The batteries are tested, so Moixa say, up to 500 charge cycles to guarantee optimum reusable performance.

In the UK, 680 million batteries are bought each year. The average household uses 21 batteries per year. This creates an estimated 19,000 tonnes of general purpose batteries waste alone, of which less than,1000 tonnes are recycled.

I don't know about the average household but I seem to be coming close, on my own, to such amount of battery usage myself.

Normal alkaline batteries are mainly disposed into landfill sites, which create significant toxic waste and environmental issues. As the battery casing corrodes, toxic metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead are released into the environment, contaminating soil and water, which in turn could cause serious health problems in the future. The world's oceans are already beginning to show traces of cadmium which can be toxic to aquatic invertebrates and can accumulate in fish, and makes them unfit for human consumption. Another common compound used in batteries is nickel-cadmium, which is a known human carcinogen. There is also a significant carbon expenditure associated with the metal extraction, manufacture, transport, packaging, storage and retailing of disposable batteries that are rubbish after a single use.

So, rechargeable is the way to go is and when we have to use batteries – and there are now already devices and gadgets that do not need batteries, per se, although some still use them internally as a means to store the energy generated by wind-up mechanisms and such, while some store the charge in slow-discharge capacitors – and those batteries such as the USB Cell that can be charged on USB sockets rather than needing to use a specific charger might be a great way to go.

My set of USB Cells is ready and waiting to go, one after the other, into a patrol flashlight once its current battery – yes, it only uses one AA cell – has been used up and then I shall bring the reader a little “in use” review as well some time in the future.

Some might consider the price of around £11 for a set of two rechargeable batteries a little steep but if the last as they are advertised, that is to say for at least 500 recharge cycles then they would well pay for themselves many times over.

© M Smith (Veshengro), November 2008
<>