Sugar – the future of battery power?

The holy grail in consumer electronics is to achieve a breakthrough in battery power that will take 21st-century devices to a whole new level. Now researchers at Sony have developed a battery that generates power from sugar and, they claim, can supply enough to run an MP3 player.

The so-called “bio battery” generates electricity by mixing enzymes with a sugar solution, much like the process of converting food into energy that occurs in the human body.

Sony says initial tests have indicated that the battery can create up to 50 MW of power, which is currently the world’s highest output generated by a passive-type bio battery. The company won’t say how long the battery can power a device for, however.

How does it work? The enzyme’s action on the sugar – or glucose, to be more precise – pumps hydrogen ions and electrons into the solution. The ions pass through a membrane, where they combine with oxygen from the air and electrons through the circuit to form water as a by-product.

Pictures show the battery arranged into interlocking cubes, each measuring
3.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 cm, though it’s still unclear how the batteries connect together and whether they are designed as reusable and interchangeable power packs. Sony also claims the battery is ecologically friendly and regenerative, because sugar is a naturally occurring substance.

The sugar battery is a world away from the so-called “paper battery” that hit the headlines this summer, devised by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. It contains carbon nanotubes, each of which acts as an electrode; these are embedded in a sheet of paper that’s soaked in ionic liquid electrolytes, which then conduct the electricity. The Institute’s ambition is to produce reams of paper that could one day power a laptop, a home PC or even a car.