There's a battery that doesn't know it's a battery. Or at least, it acts as if it's forgotten the rules. No lithium, no platinum, no rare earth elements with unpronounceable names. Just riboflavin and glucose. Vitamin B2 and the sugar you'd put in your coffee.
The prototype is in a laboratory of the Binghamton University and it works by copying the human metabolism (Find the study here): it transports electrons like it would in your cells, only instead of holding you up it generates an electric current. Jong-Hwa Shon, who is leading the project, built it by replacing noble metals with a vitamin. It's as if he decided that the human body, after three billion years of evolution, perhaps understood something better than the battery industry.
How the sugar-eating battery works
Le flow batteries They store energy in liquid electrolytes that circulate between electrodes. When the electrolytes move, chemical reactions occur that release or store energy. Glucose, present in virtually all plants, has become an attractive candidate for these systems.: renewable, stable, abundant. The problem is that until now, noble metal catalysts (platinum, gold) were needed to break down sugar molecules and release electrons. These catalysts are expensive, difficult to scale, and have limited power output.
Shon's team replaced these metals with the riboflavin, which remains stable even at the high pH levels required for glucose electrolytes. In the prototypeThe electrodes are made of carbon. The electrolyte around the negative electrode contains glucose and active riboflavin, while the positive side uses potassium ferricyanide or oxygen. They compared both configurations to test the vitamin's catalytic performance and long-term potential.
The potassium ferricyanide cell achieved a power density at room temperature similar to the commercial vanadium batteriesThe oxygen-containing version reacts more slowly, but offers a more practical and cost-effective route for large-scale production. One caveat: Oxygen can degrade riboflavin when exposed to light, causing self-discharge. The team is working to resolve this by modifying the interaction between the vitamin and the electrolyte.
Why riboflavin beats noble metals
In the human body, riboflavin helps transport energy during metabolism. In the battery it does a similar job: it transfers electrons between the electrodes and the glucose-based electrolyte, generating an electric current from the sugar..
As Shon explains:
“Riboflavin and glucose flow cells can generate electricity from naturally derived energy sources. Using non-toxic components that are both inexpensive and naturally abundant, this system offers a promising path to safer and more convenient residential energy storage".
The power density achieved with potassium ferricyanide demonstrates that riboflavin can perform at the same level as metal-based systems. The oxygen-based version provided higher power density than previous glucose-based designs, despite the slower reaction rate. The system uses biodegradable, inexpensive and readily available materials without the need for complex supply chains or toxic metals..
What's still missing to bring her home?
The prototype works. But there's still a long way to go between working in the lab and powering a home. The main problem is the oxygen configuration's sensitivity to light, which causes riboflavin degradation and self-discharge. The team is working on engineering modifications to the flow cell and the interaction between the vitamin and the electrolyte to address this. Previous studies on flow batteries they showed that similar problems can be addressed with selective membranes and optimized flow designs.
If further developed, the riboflavin-glucose system could represent a major step toward sustainable energy storage. With natural, biodegradable, and affordable components, these batteries could one day provide an environmentally friendly alternative for powering homes or small devices without relying on toxic metals or complex supply chains. Like other organic batteries in development, the system focuses on abundant materials rather than rare resources.
The metabolism-mimicking battery won't solve the global energy storage problem tomorrow. But it demonstrates once again that alternatives to rare metals exist and work. Riboflavin does the same job as platinum, costs less, pollutes less, and is found everywhere. Glucose is renewable and stable. The system is biodegradable. It remains to be seen whether industry will be willing to copy from biology rather than the established traditions of industrial chemistry..
So far, the human body seems to have understood more than we do about how to manage energy efficiently. Maybe it's time to listen.
