Synonyms

Biocatalytic fuel cell; Enzymatic fuel cell; Microbial fuel cell

Definition

Conceptually similar to a battery, a fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy stored in a fuel and an oxidant into electrical energy. The fundamental difference between a fuel cell and a battery is that fuel and oxidant are supplied from outside the reaction chamber and waste products are removed. Fuel cells that utilize biological catalysts are collectively termed biofuel cells. There is a common misinterpretation that biofuel cells are named as such because they use biological fuels, which is ambiguous as the same fuel (e.g., methanol) may originate from both biological and non-biological sources. A biofuel cell mimics electrochemical processes occurring in nature to harvest a useful electrical current, without the use of precious electrocatalysts such as platinum. There are two main categories of biofuel cells: microbial biofuel cells and enzymatic biofuel cells. Microbial biofuel cells utilize entire living cells or microorganisms combined with redox intermediates to catalyze the oxidation of a fuel. Enzymatic biofuel cells, on the other hand, catalyze the chemical reactions using biological redox enzymes that can be isolated and purified from suitable organisms, thus extracting the core part of the cell that enables catalytic activity.

Cross References

Microfluidic Fuel Cells

MEMS-Based Biosensor