Biofuel cells for the energy supply of distributed systems: State-of-the-Art and applications

Abstract:
Biofuel cells are an attractive possibility to generate electricity for energy-autonomous distributed devices. These fuel cells can tap into a variety of chemical energies available in environments such as the human body, fauna, or aquatic systems. The different biofuel cell concepts can be classified according to the catalyst system that is employed to enable the electrochemical reactions at the electrodes. Here abiotic catalysts (e.g. noble metals), isolated enzymes, or the enzymatic system of whole living microorganisms are used. In our contribution the different approaches and their specific challenges are discussed, and present and future application scenarios are highlighted.