Colaphone: The mobile you power yourself with a fizzy drink

We know a can of cola can give us a much needed shot of caffeine, now it seems it could power our mobile phones as well.

Chinese designer, Daizi Zheng, has created a concept Nokia mobile phone that is powered by sugary soft drinks.

When the colaphone runs out of juice the user simply unscrews the top of the phone and tops it up with fizzy drink.

The graduate, from Central St Martins college in London, designed the eco friendly phone as part of her final project.
'I found that a phone battery as a power source is expensive,' she wrote on her website.

'It consumes valuable resources on manufacturing, presenting a disposal problem and is harmful to the environment.

In contrast Ms Zheng's bio battery would act as a fuel cell using enzymes as the catalyst to generate electricity from carbohydrates.

You simply unscrew the top of the clear phone, pour the drink in and watch the chemical process start.

The 23-year-old said the only by-products would be water and oxygen. She added that the cola phone had the potential to run up to four times longer on a single charge than one with a traditional lithium ion battery.

'This phone battery could be fully biodegradable,' Ms Zheng said.

'Meanwhile, it brings a whole new perception to batteries and afternoon tea.'

The colaphone would be environmentally friendly because the only waste products would be water and oxygen.

Ms Zheng, who is now based in China, admitted that current bio battery's would struggle to generate enough power needed to make a call.

However, she said the technology was improving all the time and cola phones could be hitting the shelves within five years.

A commentator on mobile website 3G said: 'The concept is certainty interesting and would be very useful if you were abroad as you wouldn’t need to remember your charger and power adapter.'