For although it’s mind-boggling to imagine, this engine is
372 times (actually I'm not sure about the power output, some sources over the
internet says 700 and others says it's 372 times) more powerful than a standard
AA battery and runs for two years on a
single squirt of lighter fuel.
One of the main problems faced by engineers who have tried
to produce micro motors in the past has been the levels of heat produced. The
engines got so hot they burned themselves out and could not be re-used. The
Birmingham team overcame this by using heat-resistant materials such as ceramic
and silicon carbide.
On the side note, this discovery was made in 2003. But I'm not aware that commercial production of this engine has started or not. If it takes a team of scientists and engineers to build each
one, it won’t be replacing batteries any time soon. And it mentions nothing
about the difficulty of manufacture. It'll take time for this baby to replace
the batteries. Just imagine this little thingy runing inside your phone for
two years without requiring any attention... Pretty cool, isn't it?
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