Scientists in China have made a biofuel cell that harvests energy from soft drinks such as iced tea and juices.
Energy supply is a hot topic, explains Shaojun Dong, who made the cell with her team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Biofuel cells (BFCs) convert chemical energy into electrical energy. They are cheap and active at room temperature and near-neutral pH, and show promise for use in green technology. Enzymatic BFCs that use an enzyme to convert sugar energy into electrical energy can be made into portable power sources and implantable medical devices as they generate more power than other BFC types.
BFCs need to be miniaturised and have access to an abundant fuel source to be able to power small electronic devices. Soft drinks are cheap and widely available, Dong explains. Just 1ml of a drink could allow a fuel cell to provide electrical energy for over a month.
Power outputs of the biofuel, from left to right: iced red tea, vegetable juice, fruit juice and aerated water
Read the Energy & Environmental Science paper:
A single-walled carbon nanohorn-based miniature glucose/air biofuel cell for harvesting energy from soft drinks
Dan Wen, Xiaolong Xu and Shaojun Dong
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c0ee00080a
