A team of researchers at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, is working on a biofuel cell that uses glucose and oxygen at concentrations found in the human body to generate electricity, BBC reported.

 

Serge Cosnier and colleagues estimate that within a decade or two, biofuel cells may be used to power a range of medical implants, from sensors and drug delivery devices to entire artificial organs.

 

The fundamental limitation on such devices has always been the battery needed to keep them running; whereas batteries need to be continuously replaced over a patient’s lifetime, biofuel cells could keep working indefinitely.

 

A biofuel cell is made of two special electrodes. One removes electrons from glucose, and the other donates electrons to oxygen and hydrogen molecules, producing water. Although biofuel cells were first proposed in the 1970s, recent breakthroughs in the understanding of enzymes have resulted in several groups around the world working on such devices.