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Potato Battery

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Potato Battery
Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction:
People are using more and more household batteries. The average person owns about two button batteries, ten normal (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, etc.) batteries, and throws out about eight household batteries per year. A battery is an electrochemical device with the ability to convert chemical energy to electrical energy to provide power to electronic devices. Batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel, which can contaminate the environment when batteries are improperly disposed of. When incinerated, certain metals might be released into the air or can concentrate in the ash produced by the combustion process.
In addition, batteries may produce the following potential problems or hazards when not properly disposed off. Batteries pollute the lakes and streams as the metals vaporize into the air when burned. They can contribute to heavy metals that potentially may leach from solid waste landfills. They expose the environment and water to lead and acid. They contain strong corrosive acids which cause burns or danger to eyes and skin.
In landfills, heavy metals have the potential to leach slowly into soil, groundwater or surface water. Dry cell batteries contribute about 88 percent of the total mercury and 50 percent of the cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream. In the past, batteries accounted for nearly half of the mercury and over half of the mercury and cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream. When burned, some heavy metals such as mercury may vaporize and escape into the air, and cadmium and lead may end up in the ash.
As one of the most ubiquitous crops in the world, the potato is poised to feed the entire world. Along the way, scientists discovered that the popular staple of many people's diets may also have potential to help power it as well.
The potato is starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade . The word "potato" may refer either to the plant itself

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