At the Eco Products fair 2011 in Tokyo, Sony engineers demonstrated a battery that can generate electricity using cardboards.

Engineers showed how, using paper as 'fuel', they could generate enough energy to power a small fan.



Something as simple as using old greeting cards, which millions of us would have received this Christmas, as fuel can deliver enough energy to power a small fan. Of course, this is in the very early stages of development, but when imagining the possibilities that this technology could deliver, it becomes very exciting indeed.

"In the future, we will be able to generate the electricity using glucose derived from the used cardboard, old news papers and magazines, and other waste papers around us. To learn sophisticated system of nature world using enzymes, we can create sustainable energy cycle solution." said Yuichi Tokita, Senior Researcher Bio Material Research Gp Advanced Materials Laboratories, Sony.

Sony had previously developed a bio battery that could generate electricity from glucose, which is a clean energy source produced by plants and has an extremely high energy density, by utilizing a process similar to that used by the human respiration system. Applying this, Sony was able to operate a Walkman by using glucose derived from fruit juice as fuel.

This latest bio battery innovation uses the enzyme cellulase that decomposes cellulose contained in paper into sugar (glucose). Electrons and hydrogen ions, that the battery uses to generate electricity, are then generated by sugar decomposition through enzymatic reactions.