Sugar water battery.

University researchers at Saint Louis University in Missouri have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on a sugary solution, and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries, they say.

Their findings were described today at the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago. Using sugar for fuel is not a new concept. Nature does it very effectively. But scientists only recently have learned how to harness it. Other researchers also have developed fuel cell batteries that run on sugar, but chemistry professor Shelley Minteer claims that her version is the longest-lasting and most powerful of its type to date.

Click here for a press release from Saint Louis University.

- David Adams