Computer engineer Aisa Mijeno and her brother Raphael founded a startup producing the Sustainable Alternative Lighting, or SALt, lamps powered by saline solution, which is either a combination of salt and water or actual salt water from the sea. With more than 7000 islands in the Philippines, the team behind the multi award-winning startup believes that the lamps are better sustainable alternatives to kerosene-powered lamps, which can result in various illnesses for their users. Mijeno says the main objective of SALt, which uses saline solution to power LED lamps and a USB port that can charge smartphones, is to illuminate rural communities in the country. http://www.thevocal.com.au/impact-journalism-day-salt-shine-light-7000-islands/
Non-rechargeable batteries are examples of Galvanic cells. So the salt water from sea as electrolyte and they wanna use anode, cathode about battery making to produce another chemical compounds when we will use(discharge) this batteries. I think they have to recycle those chemical compounds from batteries(discharged) so why they didn't think about renewable energy from ocean/sea !!
Rooftop solar panels and Li-ion batteries(to store/use eenergy)could power LED lamps and a USB port that can charge smartphones to less chemical pollution than this galvanic type.
Really annoying to have to wade through so much chaff before finding the relevant passage: In other words, as expected, those lamps are not powered by sea water at all. Just using it as weakly conducting electrolyte. The actual power must come from an anode metal such as magnesium that will get eaten away slowly to form a metal salt. Still it probably is useful overall compared to the kerosene lamps traditionally used.
In a simple Voltaic cell the actual power must come from a cathode Zink metal that get eaten away slowly to form a metal salt. So is it magnesium as cathode but not anode ? Actually I'm confused here !
There is a lot of confusion about roles there, and for a rechargeable battery the roles reverse depending. I went by that such a metal used in seawater as protective for e.g. iron hulls is termed a sacrificial anode. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_anode
