Funmurphys: the Blog

Alcohol Powered Fuel Cells

What can run longer than the energizer bunny? Fuel cells powered by vodka and enzymes, if you can keep the enzymes around long enough. A St. Louis company is working that very problem, and hopes to one day make fuel cells that run for a month before you fill them back up:

Akermin, however, has developed a polymer membrane that is used to contain the enzymes and prevent them from breaking down.

The result is a lab-scale fuel cell that has continuously generated power for more than two years and is still running, said Nick Akers, Akermin's president and co-founder.

It requires the alcohol supply to be continuously renewed.

The company has demonstrated other breakthroughs, he said:

•The enzymes are able to completely break down the alcohol, increasing efficiency and providing a longer run time from a given volume of fuel than other types of fuel cells. A pen-cap full of alcohol lasts about 30 days, said co-founder Shelley Minteer, a chemistry professor at St. Louis University, in a radio interview last year.

•It has engineered a commercial prototype that stacks several tiny fuel cells into a device like a battery pack that is rugged and about the size of a cell phone.

So far, the prototype is just approaching the amount of power generation sufficient to fuel a cell phone. Creating a device that could run a laptop computer is years away, Akers said.

The eventual goal is creating a small, powerful array of fuel cells that last a long time and can be instantly "recharged" by replacing a small, portable and non-toxic alcohol cartridge. Corn-based ethanol is a likely source of fuel because there is a ready supply, but the cells have been shown to run on vodka, gin and even flat beer.

So maybe the push into ethanol as a renewable energy source will pay off after all.

OK, I do think it's really cool that they are doing this work right here in my hometown.