Researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada have created a fuel cell that can be powered by human blood. The microbial fuel cell is a flexible and biocompatible structure suitable for body implantation as a potential power source for implanted medical devices, and is able to convert chemical energy stored in glucose in the blood stream into electrical energy using yeast.
Yeast Powered Fuel Cell. Source: Mu Chiao & Chin-Pang-Billy Siu
The microbial fuel cell is a laminate design encapsulated by polydimethylsiloxane and has an overall size of 1.7 cm times 1.7 cm times 0.2 cm and a net weight of less than 0.5 g. Compared with recent silicon micromachined microbial fuel cells, this structure showed a 4.9 times increase in average current density and a 40.5 times increase in average power density when operated at identical conditions. The cell produces around 40 nanowatts of power, compared to microwatt a typical wristwatch battery might produce. This may be enough power to run some implanted medical devices.
Researchers on the project include Mu Chiao, an associate professor, and Chin-Pang-Billy Siu, a PhD candidate both in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia.
Although the concept has been proved further studies are still needed but this discovery means that electronics implanted in the body such as pacemakers may be able to run on electricity generated by the patient's blood rather than on batteries that would require surgical replacement at regular intervals. Other implantable medical devices that could use these microbial fuel cells are deep brain stimulators used to treat Parkinsons Disease, inter-spinal electrodes for treating paralysis and possible microscopic drug delivery systems for AIDS patients.
Top Image Mu Chiao. Source: University of British Columbia
For more attend: Energy Harvesting and Storage 2009
