NEW YORK, JANUARY 21 (IANS): A research team at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has developed a battery that runs on sugar and has an unmatched energy density. This development could replace conventional batteries with ones that are cheaper, refillable and biodegradable. “Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature. So it’s only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery,” said YH Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech. 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, said the study published in the journal Nature Communications. “In as soon as three years, the new battery could be running some of the cell phones, tablets and the myriad other electronic gadgets that require power in our energy-hungry world,” Zhang said.
