Platinum and other nobel metals have been found to catalyze the complete oxidation of sucrose and other sugars by vanadium(IV) in acid environments. As the redox potential of vanadium(IV)/vanadium(III) differs substantially from that of dioxygen/water, it might be possible to use this reaction to construct a redox type of fuel cell. In the present paper, the requirements on the catalyst are discussed, especially those that give full conversion of the oxidation reaction. Various sugars such as fructose, glucose, xylose and arabinose have been investigated and found to yield essentially the same results. A provisional model is proposed that might describe the processses on the catalyst surface. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.