Apple is well known for its applications for patents that describe devices powered by renewable energy sources such as solar energy and movement. No doubt the company continues to do just that. In a recently filed patent the company described a “portable and cost-effective fuel cell systems for portable computing device”, which seems that the company provides a device that can use several different energy source through the fuel cell.
Although the company has yet to produce such a machine powered by renewable energy, Apple seems quick to patent everything they could provide as possible use in future and current devices.
In his patent application Apple explains his interest in the use of fuel cells. The basis of this decision, according to the Apple is the dependence of her native country from fossil fuels, which forced the government to maintain complicated political and military relationships with unstable countries in the Middle East.”
The patent application describes a design in which energy can come from “fuel cartridge, which is removably attached to the fuel cell system.” This means that when the source of fuel is over, one can replace the cartridge and reload fuel, instead of using a battery recharge.
Apple lists a number of potential sources of fuel such as compressed hydrogen gas or liquid hydrogen, sodium borohydride, sodium silicate, lithium hydride, magnesium hydride, lithium borohydride and lithium aluminum hydride.
Following Apps’s plans for future fuel cells is the Europe struggle to manage its electronic waste.
Only one third of electronic waste in Europe is properly recycled. A huge number of mobile phones, computers and televisions are illegally traded or illegally dumped. This was realized after a publication of a by research released by the UN and Interpol on Sunday.
Sweden and Norway are the closest to EU targets for collection and recycling of 85 percent of all electrical and electronic waste. At the other end of the spectrum are Romania, Spain and Cyprus, which recycle less than 20 percent of their waste.
EU rules require recycling of all “electrical and electronic waste” – products with a plug or battery – to recover valuable metals such as gold or silver to prevent the release of toxins such as lead or mercury. On average 35% of e-waste on the continent are properly recycled in 2012, according to this new report. The report denied suggestions that the majority are illegally sent to African nations, particularly Nigeria and Ghana, and repaired to live a new life there. This approach is too expensive.
Total 3.3 million tons of total the 9.5 million tons of electronic waste generated in Europe in 2012, have been properly disposed of so that recyclable. Only about 1.3 million were exported. The rest is “processed” in Europe outside the regular treatment programs.
Joanna Botezatu, environmental expert at the international police agency Interpol said that prosecutions are rare, although some countries have strict penalties for environmental crimes. The recommendations of the report to better police cooperation, more consumer education on the topic of recycling and the ban on cash transactions in trade in scrap metal. A problem that must be solved is the fact that many people do not know where to find recycling centers, where to submit electronic and electrical junk.