Phones powered from footfalls on their way

Mobile electronic devices capable of recharging by harnessing the user's kinetic energy could be available to the US military within twelve to eighteen months, with the same technology deployed in consumer devices soon after.

That is the goal of US start up M2E Power, which last week announced it had secured $8m in venture capital funding to expand its research and development capabilities.

The funding round, which was led by OVP Venture Partners, will also allow the company to explore a raft of new applications for the technology, including how it could be used to improve the efficiency of induction generators used in wind turbines and wave and tidal energy technologies.

Regan Rowe, licensing and business development manager of M2E, explained that the battery technology exploits the Faraday Principle that an electric current can be generated from a conductor moving within a magnetic field. However, M2E has developed a configuration of the magnets and coils that "concentrates the magnetic field so that when the magnetic field is moved through the coil system you get an increase in the power draw that is up to seven times better than conventional approaches".

Consequently, the technology can be deployed to not just harness kinetic energy by moving a magnet through a shaft within the battery as it moves, but can also be applied to any generators that use induction.

"Wind, tidal and wave power and hybrid cars all use magnet and coil-based induction and we have the potential to greatly improve the energy efficiency of those generators just by retrofitting our systems," Rowe said. "If you look at a sector like wind, where the generator efficiency is typically just 40 per cent, then just a 10 percentage point improvement in efficiency would have a massive impact on its cost effectiveness."

Applications for the technology in the renewable energy sector remain several years away, but the company insists that batteries exploiting the technology to harness kinetic energy could be available for military use in around a year.

Rowe said that M2E's testing showed those mobile devices that are moved around all day with the user, such as phones and other hand held devices, generated enough energy through the system to never need recharging. She added that this would be particularly attractive to the military because it would free up soldiers from constantly carrying heavy batteries to recharge devices.

The company said it was also working on optimising the kinetic charging technology to generate higher power levels. "For semi-mobile devices with high power draws, such as laptops, our system could be used as an adjunct to the battery to improve its life," said Rowe. "It is too early to predict if the technology could ultimately support these types of applications, but we have got a number of innovations in the pipeline to increase power output."

The announcement follows related news from automotive engineering company Torotrak and Flybrid Systems that they are working with both a major Formula One race team and a UK bus company to install new kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS), which exploit a mechanical fly wheel to capture energy wasted when a vehicle decelerates and then releases it back into the vehicle as it accelerates.