Glucose is the most abundant monosaccharide in nature and has great potential as high density hydrogen carrier for fuel cells. However, the practical application of direct glucose alkaline fuel cell (DGAFC) is hampered by lack of cost-effective anode catalyst. In this study, nickel-cobalt composite catalysts were prepared by NaBH4 reduction method and electro-chemical, morphological and chemical properties of catalysts were characterized by LSV, EIS, SEM, TEM, XRD and XPS techniques. The nickel-cobalt composite catalyst and modified activated carbon anode was evaluated in one-chamber DGAFC. Our results demonstrated that the DGAFC performance was greatly improved with the addition of Ni-Co composite catalyst in the anode. Fuel cell achieved the peak power density of 23.97 W m(-2) under the condition of 1 M glucose, 3 M KOH and ambient temperature. The enhancement of the anode performance could be attributed to the synergic effect of two reversible redox systems, Ni(II)/Ni(III) and Co(II)/Co(III), which improved interfacial charge-transfer kinetics. Our study may facilitate the development of cost-effective renewable energy devices. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.