Paper batteries. (Credit: Self-Powered Engineered Devices)
Paper, carbon, and non-toxic metals: those are the ingredients for Fuelium’s batteries, according to an article on Inhabitat.com. These won’t be powering cars right now; the company says their paper-based batteries are suited for powering in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) applications, or tests that can detect diseases with blood or tissue samples. Fuelium says their batteries are geared for “single-use electronic devices which can be disposed of without recycling.” Regular single-use diagnostic tests are thrown out after utilizing under one percent of their batteries’ charge, according to OZY. But Fuelium’s paper batteries, according to the Autonomous University of Barcelona’s Research Park, “only generate the amount of energy needed for each application and do not contain heavy metals or are harmful to health.”
