Mini-engines set to replace batteries

Engineers have developed tiny engines - only a few millimetres wide - that will soon replace a standard battery.

These micro-engines have over 300 times more energy than an ordinary battery and are much lighter and smaller. The new power-supplying machines - less than a centimetre long - will soon be used to charge mobile phones and laptop computers in a matter of seconds.

The mini motor, which can run for two years on a single squirt of lighter fuel, is set to revolutionise world technology. Some experts believe that it could phase out batteries within six years.

Dr Kyle Jiang - lead investigator from the department of Mechanical Engineering at Birmingham University in the English Midlands - said, "These micro-engines will be much more energy efficient than standard batteries. It takes 2,000 times more energy to manufacture a battery than the battery dispenses while it is being used.

"Soon, everyone will be able to charge their mobile phones instantly using a shot of cigarette lighter fuel instead of having to find a socket for a charger and wait while the phone charges up."

Micro-engines will also be used during military operations for driving micro-air vehicles and micro-robots for reconnaissance purposes, communications relays, micro-cameras and other sensor carriers.

Other applications will include micro-factories - tiny 'labs-on-a-chip' that will be able to make drugs, chemicals or small mechanical components.

One of the main problems faced by the mechanical engineering department at Birmingham was how to deal with the levels of heat produced - because the engines got so hot they burned themselves out and could not be reused.

Researchers got around this problem by using durable heat-resistant materials in the construction of the engines, such as ceramic or silicon carbide.