Summer is well underway, which unfortunately for me means arriving to the office dripping with sweat. Even my bold move towards wearing shorts to the office has stopped this inconvenient truth. A rather exciting scientific development could see our sweat put to use though. In the near future, those of us that sweat could become our very own source of renewable energy.

Scientists have been working for a while now to try and generate power from our sweat and the latest tests have seen sweat power a radio for 2 whole days. Joseph Wang from the University of California, San Diego believes that sweat can power so much more than a radio, he says, “We’re now getting really impressive power levels. If you were out for a run, you would be able to power a mobile device.” Wow. Imagine having no battery left on your phone and being able to jog a little to get a bit of juice back.

The power is generated using a small square skin patch. Only a couple of centimeters across and containing enzymes that replace the precious metals normally used in batteries, the patch feeds off the lactic acid in your sweat to provide the power output.

With this proof of concept it’ll be interesting to see just how long it takes before we see this type of technology finding its way into consumer products like sports wearables. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Sweating on the way to work is never going to be fun but at least, in the near future, there might be a bright side to having an excess of early morning moisture.

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Via: New Scientist