One Sweet Sony Battery
Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:11PM EDT
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When I say sweet, take me literally. Sony has developed an environmentally friendly prototype battery that runs on sugar. It can generate enough electricity (50 milliwatts) to power a Walkman and a pair of speakers.
The bio battery's casing is made of a vegetable-based plastic and is the size of small cube or block. A glucose solution is injected into the battery where it meets enzymes that convert the glucose energy to electric energy.
Watching a Walkman powered by sugar (and a very feminine model hand) is pretty wild, and the clip also shows a normal sports drink (which contains glucose) being poured into a battery that powers a tiny propeller.
"Sugar is a naturally occurring energy source produced by plants through photosynthesis," Sony said in its statement. So the battery is an eco-friendly, sustainable one. Sony presented the research at the American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in Boston.
Last week I wrote about bendable, paper-like batteries. Then I wrote about human-body-heat-powered batteries. In the past I've written about a few other promising new battery technologies.
So it seems things are getting pretty exciting in the boring world of batteries.
I'm loving the idea of using sugar to power your electronics. After all, your body does it. Why shouldn't your battery?
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2 Posted by dumb_blonde200915 on Sun Sep 2, 2007 1:25AM EDT Report Abuse
sugar? sounds tasty..
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1 Posted by middlenamefrank on Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:11PM EDT Report Abuse
I've seen this elsewhere, and though it looks very limited right now it just may be a developing technology with some promise. But shouldn't it really be called a fuel cell rather than a battery? A battery has the chemicals it operates on embedded in it, a fuel cell 'burns' a fuel which may be continuously fed into it. That's a real advantage, since a fuel cell continues producing power as long as you provide it with fuel.