Sugar Battery

It's easy to forget about the process that occurs in the human body when sugar is digested. You eat something when you're hungry and then you feel more energized and alert unless, of course, it's Thanksgiving. Sugar provides energy for all living things, so is it a stretch to think it could also be used to power electronics as well? Scientists and chemists don't think it is.

In 2007, Japanese scientists discovered a way to use enzymes to breakdown sugar, much like how the human body breaks down sugar, and created a bio-battery. You wouldn't necessarily think that something as simple as sugar would have a charge to it, but this battery was able to produce 50 milliwatts of power.

Consequently, scientists in America underwent the same type of experiment. They used enzymes to strip charges off sugar. The enzymes were retained and embedded into membranes composed of chitosan, a compound that comes from the exoskeleton of crustaceans. The membranes were then embedded into fuel cells and a battery created. What's interesting about this process is the fact that this particular type of battery can run on anything from tree sap to sweetened drink mixes.

Recently, the studies for the bio-battery have been revisited, in the effort to replace lithium-ion batteries. Scientists have discovered that heating sucrose at extremely high temperatures in an oxygen free atmosphere will yield a hard carbon powder. This powder, once embedded into a sodium ion battery, will achieve a high storage capacity. In other words, this battery will function for a long time and power all kinds of things. There scientists are still hard at work, attempting to achieve even high power levels. They predict that they will have something viable by 2017 at the earliest.

What's the significance of all this research and experimentation? With the big push toward green living, sugar-powered batteries are an environmentally friendly alternative to lithium-ion batteries as they are completely natural and the contents are biodegradable. Additionally, sugar is essentially an unlimited resource, as plants generate it through photosynthesis. There is also a high probability that sugar batteries will last 3-4 times longer than a traditional lithium-ion battery. Who knows? We might be running all or our devices and equipment off sugar one day.