(Press-News.org) Contact information: Zeke Barlow
bzeke@vt.edu
540-231-5417
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech researcher develops energy-dense sugar battery
'Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature,' Y.H. Percival Zhang said. 'So it's only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery.'
A Virginia Tech research team has developed a battery that runs on sugar and has an unmatched energy density, a development that could replace conventional batteries with ones that are cheaper, refillable, and biodegradable.
The findings from Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering, were published today in the journal Nature Communications.
While other sugar batteries have been developed, this one has an energy density an order of magnitude higher than others, allowing it to run longer before needing to be refueled, Zhang said.
In as soon as three years, Zhang's new battery could be running some of the cell phones, tablets, video games, and the myriad other electronic gadgets that require power in our energy-hungry world, Zhang said.
"Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature," Zhang said. "So it's only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery."
In America alone, billions of toxic batteries are thrown away every year, posing a threat to both the environment and human health, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Zhang's development could help keep hundreds of thousands of tons of batteries from ending up in landfills.
This is one of Zhang's many successes in the last year that utilize a series of enzymes mixed together in combinations not found in nature. He has published articles on creating edible starch from non-food plants and developed a new way to extract hydrogen in an economical and environmentally friendly way that can be used to power vehicles.
In this newest development, Zhang and his colleagues constructed a non-natural synthetic enzymatic pathway that strip all charge potentials from the sugar to generate electricity in an enzymatic fuel cell. Then, low-cost biocatalyst enzymes are used as catalyst instead of costly platinum, which is typically used in conventional batteries.
Like all fuel cells, the sugar battery combines fuel - in this case, maltodextrin, a polysaccharide made from partial hydrolysis of starch - with air to generate electricity and water as the main byproducts.
"We are releasing all electron charges stored in the sugar solution slowly step-by-step by using an enzyme cascade," Zhang said.
Different from hydrogen fuel cells and direct methanol fuel cells, the fuel sugar solution is neither explosive nor flammable and has a higher energy storage density. The enzymes and fuels used to build the device are biodegradable.
The battery is also refillable and sugar can be added to it much like filling a printer cartridge with ink.
INFORMATION:
Support for the current research comes from the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech and Cell-Free Bioinnovations, a biotech start-up, located in Blacksburg, Va. Additional funding was contributed by the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant to Cell-Free Bioinnovations Inc. Zhiguang Zhu, the first author of this paper, and a 2013 biological systems engineering graduate of Virginia Tech, is the principal investigator for the National Science Foundation grant.
Virginia Tech researcher develops energy-dense sugar battery
'Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature,' Y.H. Percival Zhang said. 'So it's only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery.'
2014-01-21
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Probability of blindness from glaucoma has nearly halved
2014-01-21
Probability of blindness from glaucoma has nearly halved
Researchers cite advances in diagnosis and therapy as likely causes for reduction; caution that a significant proportion of devastating eye disease sufferers still progress to blindness
SAN FRANCISCO ...
Source of Galapagos eruptions is not where models place it
2014-01-21
Source of Galapagos eruptions is not where models place it
University of Oregon study finds plume to the southeast, explaining active volcanic activity in the islands
EUGENE, Ore. -- Images gathered by University of Oregon scientists using seismic waves penetrating ...
Study finds decreased life expectancy for multiple sclerosis patients
2014-01-21
Study finds decreased life expectancy for multiple sclerosis patients
(Boston) – The first large scale study in the U.S. on the mortality of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) has been published and provides new information about the life expectancy ...
Arctic warmth unprecedented in 44,000 years, reveals ancient moss
2014-01-21
Arctic warmth unprecedented in 44,000 years, reveals ancient moss
When the temperature rises on Baffin Island, in the Canadian high Arctic, ancient Polytrichum mosses, trapped beneath the ice for thousands of years, are exposed. Using radiocarbon dating, new research in Geophysical ...
Are anti-poaching efforts repeating the mistakes of the 'war on drugs'?
2014-01-21
Are anti-poaching efforts repeating the mistakes of the 'war on drugs'?
Illegal poaching, fuelled by the demand for alternative 'medicines' and luxury goods in Asian markets, continues unabated. In response unprecedented levels of funding are being invested in enforcement, ...
Anti-swine flu vaccination linked to increased risk of narcolepsy in young adults
2014-01-21
Anti-swine flu vaccination linked to increased risk of narcolepsy in young adults
Pandemrix is an influenza vaccination, created in 2009 to combat H1N1, known as Swine Flu. Now, a team of Swedish clinicians testing the vaccine for links to immune-related or neurological diseases ...
Older brains slow due to greater experience, rather than cognitive decline
2014-01-21
Older brains slow due to greater experience, rather than cognitive decline
What happens to our cognitive abilities as we age? Traditionally it is thought that age leads to a steady deterioration of brain function, but new research in Topics in Cognitive Science argues that ...
Depressive symptoms linked to adult-onset asthma in African-American women
2014-01-21
Depressive symptoms linked to adult-onset asthma in African-American women
(Boston) – According to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University, African-American women who reported high levels of depressive symptoms had ...
How to improve HPV vaccination rates? It starts with physicians, Moffitt researchers say
2014-01-21
How to improve HPV vaccination rates? It starts with physicians, Moffitt researchers say
Consistent recommendations from family doctors lacking
The risk of developing cervical cancer can be significantly decreased through human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. ...
Great Lakes evaporation study dispels misconceptions, need for expanded monitoring program
2014-01-21
Great Lakes evaporation study dispels misconceptions, need for expanded monitoring program
ANN ARBOR—The recent Arctic blast that gripped much of the nation will likely contribute to a healthy rise in Great Lakes water levels in 2014, new research shows. But the processes ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
CZI and NVIDIA accelerate virtual cell model development for scientific discovery
JMIR Publications and MCBIOS partner to boost open access bioinformatics research
Canadian scientists describe an extinct rhino species from Canada's High Arctic
Houseplant inspires textured surfaces to mitigate copper IUD corrosion
LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA observed “second generation” black holes
Dicer: Life's ancient repair tool
Environmental shifts are pushing endangered reptiles to the brink of extinction
New open-source American College of Lifestyle Medicine program brings culinary skills and nutrition education into medicine
AI tool identifies women at high risk of interval breast cancer
USF study: AI and citizen science reveal potential first detection of invasive malaria mosquito in Madagascar
American Pediatric Society honors Dr. Bruce D. Gelb with 2026 APS John Howland Award
Leveraging COVID-19 lessons to prepare for the next pandemic
Mount Sinai awarded $4.5M BD2 grant to advance research on the biology of bipolar disorder
Global initiative to demonstrate operational excellence in Nigeria for metastatic colorectal cancer patients
AI produces shallower knowledge than web search
New study shows global decline in parental trust in childhood vaccines after COVID-19, contributing to increased measles outbreaks
BD² awards $18 million in grants to advance research on the biology of bipolar disorder
Opt-out organ donation policies might reduce organ supply
Message from the oldest-living dogs to dogs and men: Gonad function fights frailty
Distinct brain features in football players may tell who is at risk of long-term traumatic disease
Identifying safer implant designs for total hip replacement
Study reveals clinical frailty scale as a quick predictor of patient risk after heart failure administration
Game-changing heat shield to revolutionize aerospace manufacturing with long-life engines
Pusan National University researchers show how AI can help in fashion trend prediction
Sinking Indian megacities pose 'alarming' building damage risks
Cul-de-sac effect: Why Mediterranean regions are becoming more prone to extreme floods in a changing climate
Now in 3D, maps begin to bring exoplanets into focus
Researchers develop an ultrasound probe capable of imaging an entire organ in 4D
Oxygen deprivation heightens risk of illness by changing genes
Missing nutrient in breast milk may explain health challenges in children of women with HIV
[Press-News.org] Virginia Tech researcher develops energy-dense sugar battery'Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature,' Y.H. Percival Zhang said. 'So it's only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery.'