SCMP reported that Chinese scientists have created a generator that takes advantage of the process of transpiration of plants to produce electricity. Specifically, a group of professors, Mr. Hu Kaichang - head of the research team of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (China) has just invented a generator based on the transpiration of lotus leaves. The product is capable of supplying electricity to devices and creating an electrical grid to help the factory operate.
"This study not only explores the hydropower effect of transpiration from lotus leaves but also provides a new perspective on green energy technology that can be widely applied in the future," the research team shared in an article published in the journal Nature Water on September 16.
"Although the natural transpiration process of plant leaves possesses large hydrothermal energy, it has not been exploited much. Therefore, we pioneered the development of a generator prototype based on lotus leaf transpiration (LTG)," the research team said.
Accordingly, the research team created a generator based on the transpiration of lotus leaves by placing a titanium mesh electrode as the cathode close to the leaf surface and a titanium needle electrode as the anode inserted into the roots. When transpiration occurs, the stomata (or breathing holes, an important type of plant cell) open and operate in an upward direction, creating a potential difference between the two electrodes.
"Plants continue to exchange water with the environment through transpiration, so the electricity production process can take place all day, especially when it is sunny," Mr. Xuong explained.
"We designed a series of experiments to verify the ability to produce electricity and conduct on-site electricity measurements. The experimental results showed that generating electricity by exploiting the transpiration process of fresh leaves is completely feasible," Professor Xuong shared with Observer News .
According to the paper, transpiration refers to the process of water moving from the roots to the top of a plant and evaporating through leaves or flowers. The researchers estimate that the global electricity production through transpiration from plants is 67.5 TWh/year. It could become a widely applied and commercially viable technology. The advantages are that it is sustainable, environmentally friendly and low-cost.
Compared with traditional generators, generators based on plant transpiration have simple equipment and do not require large water sources. Professor Xuong said that this generator can also be used as an energy source for distributed areas such as fields or farms, without the need for large infrastructure.
In addition, the research team also found that environmental temperature, transpiration rate and stomatal opening are favorable factors for output power. Of which, transpiration rate has the greatest influence, while low humidity will reduce power.
To widely apply this product, Professor Xuong said, the research team needs to overcome many challenges such as increasing the power generation efficiency of a single leaf, optimizing the energy collection and storage system, and expanding the application cases.
He said that currently the amount of electricity generated from a single leaf is quite small. Research shows that connecting many trees and leaves together can form a large distributed power generation network. "In the future, this technology has the potential to be widely applied in areas such as the internet of energy, smart grids and sensors," Mr. Xuong said.
Although the generator that runs on the transpiration of lotus leaves is still in its early stages of development, Professor Xuong's team continues to explore new ways to boost the product. To prove the device's popularity, the team had to test it on many plant species and found that they all had the ability to produce electricity.
Professor Hu Kaichang is a scientist on the list of C-level talents of Fujian Province (China). He has many years of experience in researching electrochemical thin film biotechnology and agricultural sensor applications.
In the past 5 years, he has published more than 20 scientific works in journals such as Science Advances, Nano Energy, Research, Biosensors & Bioelectronics and Chinese Science with about 500 citations and H-index 12. To date, he owns 9 patents.
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nha-khoa-hoc-tao-ra-may-phat-dien-tu-la-sen-2330258.html
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