Sugar-Feeding 'BioBattery' Stores 15x More Energy Than Li-Ion Battery

nilfire77

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Virginia Tech scientists have successfully illustrated a sugar 'biobattery' as a type of enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) that converts the chemical energy contained within sugar substrates (starch and glycogen) into electrical energy. Y H Percival Zhang, Chief Science Officer at Cell-Free BioInnovations (CFB) at Virginia Tech claims that theirs is the first team to have demonstrated the complex oxidation of biobattery's sugar, thus achieving a near-theoretical energy conversion yield that no other person/team has reported.

Sugar biobattery contains more potential energy as compared to Lithium battery; the biobattery registers its energy-storage density of 596 ampere-hours (A/h) per kg, which is far greater than 42 A-h/kg energy density registered by Lithium battery employed in several gadgets. With this high an energy density, the biobattery could last approximately ten times longer than the current lithium battery of same size and weight.

Not only is the sugar biobattery more powerful and effective, but cheap to make, and also refillable, eco-friendly and non-flammable.

Source: http://www.crazyengineers.com/threa...es-15x-more-energy-than-li-ion-battery.76458/
 

WalkIntoTheLight

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Uh-huh. Let me guess: the technology will be commercially available in 5 years? (And in 5 years, they'll either be gone, or will still be claiming another 5 years?)

I think I'll just wait for their perpetual energy machine.
 

idleprocess

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I'm going to guess that like most fuel cells, it requires a bit of volume, has a complex apparatus, needs a fresh air supply, is nowhere near as rugged as a conventional cell, will have narrower environmental parameters, will require precise fuel dispensed in proprietary hermetically-sealed containers, and will have appreciable discharge-current limitations.

All these concepts are neat, but so few of them pan out in the real world where we expect batteries to be simple, inexpensive, rugged, and inexpensive. If they get closer to actual commercialization, it will be of more interest.
 
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