A proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell-based wearable alcohol sensing device has been explored for the monitoring of blood alcohol content (BAC) in real time. The watch-like alcohol monitoring device detects alcohol from the perspiration of the human skin. This transcutaneous (transdermal) fuel cell sensor can detect a wide range of concentrations of alcohol, including a physiological range of concentration (5–100 mg/dl), with the detection time of ~ 5 s. A calibration model, such as principal component regression (PCR), was implemented to reduce standard errors and refine the calibration of this sensor by offsetting noise. The BAC values from the transcutaneous sensor were closer to the theoretical values, with 77.47% improvement in accuracy compared to readings from off the shelf breathalyzer. The results from human studies demonstrate that this fuel cell sensing device in accompany with the proposed PCR model can be employed for the determination of BAC through transcutaneous measurements.
