Sugar fuel cell developed

A FUEL CELL that runs on sugar rather than methanol is in development by Matsushita, according to a report in today's Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Practical applications could be as a source of power for heart pacemakers, using blood sugar to create electricity.

The paper said the prototype is currently two centimetres long and five centimetres in diameter, so work is needed on the design.

It uses enzymes to separate the sugar into water and CO2.

The report claimed that the prototype can generate around 300 microwatts. No date for the launch of a commercial version of such a fuel cell is available. µ

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