Vodka has many uses, admittedly most of them involve getting drunk, but charging the battery of your MP3 player or iPod isn’t one you’d have thought of! However a company in China, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, announced they’ve developed a battery that runs on alcohol.

The battery is called the ‘Bio Energy Discovery Kit’ is a test kit that has been distributed to education establishments and features an alcohol powered battery that powers a fan.

Taras Wankewycz is the co-founder and vice president of Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies:

Many new ideas will come from the market once this technology can be experimented with. The development and commercialization of the world’s first direct ethanol fuel cell is an exciting milestone for us but is also just a single step in our continuing goal to bring ever more powerful fuel cell energy solutions to the masses.

The reality of using vodka to run your iPod may still be some way off, but new modes of powering electrical devices are being worked on all the time. Horizon are working on various different fuel types, all based around ethanol (DEFC – direct ethanol fuel cells).

MP3 players and mobile phones are perfect for the new planned fuel cell as they use very little power.