Performance Evaluation of Electricity Generation from Living Plants

Abstract–– The productionofelectricityfromnaturalgas,coal
and otherfossilfuelisnon-renewable.Thereisaneedfor
efficient, sustainableandrenewableenergy.Thisprojectuses
that kindofsustainableenergy.Itiscentredonanaturalprocess
and issafeforboththeenvironmentandtheplant.Thisproject
concentrates onobtainingelectricalenergyfromthelivingplants
and theeffectoftemperature,humidityandsoilmoistureonthe
production ofelectricityisalsostudied.Plantsphotosynthesize
organic matterthroughcarbondioxide,waterforitsgrowthand
thus capturesolarenergy.Alittleamountoftheorganicmatter
is excretedthroughtherootsintothesoilasawasteproduct.
Naturally occurringbacteriawhichareelectrochemicallyactive,
break downtheorganicmatterintherhizosphereandproduce
electrons. Whenelectrodesareplacedneartheroots,inthesoil,
the ionstraveltowardstheelectrodesandproduceelectricity
from thissurge.Thethreesensors,DTH11,SoilMoistureSensor
and Voltagesensorsareusedtostudyhowvoltagevarieswith
respect totheseparameters.Thesenseddataistransmitted
through theESP8266Wi-FimoduleintotheThinkspeakcloud.
Then theanalysisisdonebycollectingthedatafromthecloud.
Index Terms— electrodes, humidity,livingplants,
rhizosphere, soilmoisture,sustainableenergy,temperature.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, technologyisdevelopinganditplaysamajor
role inallhumanlives.Astechnologydevelops,theresources
are usedwidely.Energy-savingreflectsanattempttoreduce
the energyconsumptionbylessusageofenergy.Thiscanbe
done eitherbymoreeffectiveuseofrenewableenergyorby
lowering theamountofserviceused.Thisresearchfocuses
on generatingelectricityfromplants.Theprocessdoesnot
affect theplantaswellastheenvironment.Theplantsmake
their foodbyphotosynthesis.Photosynthesisisthemethodof
transforming solarenergyintochemicalenergybythegreen
plants andsomeotherspecies.Somefundamentalprocedure
to harvestweakelectricityfromlivingplantswasachieved
by embeddingelectrodesintotheplants,therebycompleting
the connectionwiththeconditioningcircuit,electricalenergy
is extracted[5].Itisalsodescribedthatthecombinationof
the copper-zincelectrodeisusedtoproducethehighest
voltage inthealoeveraplant.Whencoupledconstructed
wetland- (CW)withmicrobialfuelcells(MFC),(CW-MFC),
is used,attheinitialstage(1-8days),theCW-MFCplant
voltages
International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
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(0.51- 0.53V)werenearthemeanvoltageoftheCW-MFC
plant (0.50V).Here,asingle-chamberwhichisfreefromthe
membrane iscontinuouslyfedupusingmicrobialfuelcelland
is coupledwithconstructedwetland,inwhichthecathodeis
placed inwaterfortheuseofoxygenfromtheairforreduction
reactions andtheanodeissubmergedinasupportingmatrix
near therhizospheretoacquireorganicsubstratesinthe
influents ordeprivedofwetlandplantsrootasfuel[3].In
Plant-e, thematerialusedfortheanodeandcathodeiscarbon
material. Titaniumwireswereusedtoformacircuitasa
current collector.Inthis,thecarbon-carbonelectrodepairis
used. Theextractedelectricalenergywouldincrease
proportionately, byrisingthenumberofelectrodesembedded
in theplants[5].Intheexistingmethod,theelectrodepair
which isusedforgeneratingvoltagefromthelivingplants
produces anonlylowamountofvoltage.Thegenerationof
electricity fromplantsisaffectedbyvariousparameterswhich
include bothphysicalandenvironmentalchanges.Thus,the
effect ofvariousparametersonthegenerationofelectricity
from theplantshastobestudied.Theprimaryobjectiveofthis
research istoharvestelectricityfromplantsandtostudythe
effect oftemperature,humidityandsoilmoistureonthe
production ofelectricity.
II. METHODOLOGY
The objectiveofthispaperistoillustratethegenerationof
electricity fromlivingplantsandtostudytheeffectof
temperature, soilmoistureandhumidityontheproductionof
electricity. Glucoseisformedduringthephotosynthesisprocess
of theplants.Partoftheenergyproducedbyphotosynthesisis
used forplantgrowth,andtheremainderisexcretedintothe
soil. Withinplantroots,electrochemicallyactivebacteriaare
present. Glucosedecomposeswiththebacteria.Asa
consequence, theyproducecarbondioxide,electronsand
protons. Carbondioxideisreleasedbackintotheatmosphere.
When theanodeandcathodeareplacedneartheplant’sroot,
electrons areattractedtotheanodeduetoitspositivecharge,
and theprotonsareattractedtothecathodeduetoitsnegative
charge.
In thispaper,themethodtoproducearound1Voltfrom
a singleplantisshown.Theproperchoiceofelectrodepair
will increasethevoltageobtainedfromtheplantandthe
electrode hasbeenselectedbasedonastudyoftrialresults.
More thanoneplantcanbeconnectedinseriestoobtain
higher voltageasshowninFig.1.Thisobtainedvoltagecan
be giventotheDC-DCstep-upboostconverterMT3608.
MT3608 requiresaminimumof2Vtoproduceamaximum
of 28V.Thisboostedvoltagecanbegiventoanylowpower
device. Thevoltageproducedfromlivingplantsvariesby
various parameters.Theseparametersincludethe
temperature oftheenvironmentinwhichtheplantis
growing, thehumidityoftheairaroundtheplant,the
moisture contentinthesoilinwhichtheplantgrows,etc.
Studying theeffectofthesethreeparameters,temperature,
humidity andsoilmoistureontheproductionofelectricity
from thelivingplantswillhelptounderstandtheproduction
of electricityfromlivingplants.
These aboveparametersaremeasuredusingthesensors,
DHT11, soilmoisturesensorandvoltagesensor.The
microcontroller usedhereisArduinoUNO.Thesensor
values aregiventothemicrocontroller.Thedataissent
from ArduinoUNOtoThingspeakcloud[2].Thisoccurs
with thehelpoftheESP8266(NodeMCU)Wi-Fimodule
connected withArduinoUNO.TheThingspeakisanIOT
platform inwhichchannelsarecreatedsothatdatacanbe
stored initandweobservethevariationinvoltage
concerning thetemperature,humidityandsoilmoisture.
Fig. 1.Seriesconnectionofplants
III. ELECTRODESELECTION
The selectionofelectrodetoobtainahighvoltagefrom
a singleplantwasbasedonastudyoftrialresults.Theplant
International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
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taken forthisstudywasoneRoseplant.Thetrialresultsare
shown inTableI.
TABLE- I: Variation ofvoltagewithdifferentelectrodes
Anode Cathode Voltage(V)
Aluminium Aluminium 0.2
Iron Aluminium 0.4
Copper Aluminium 0.64
Copper Iron 0.94
Copper Zinc 0.6
Carbon Aluminium 0.4
Carbon Iron 1.1
Carbon Zinc 1.3
Carbon Copper 0.6
It canbeseenthattheelectrodepairofCarbonasanode
and Zincascathodegivesthemaximumvoltageof1.3Vin
one Roseplant.Hence,basedonthistrialresult,Carbon-
Zinc electrodepairischosenforfurtherstudy.
IV. ANALYSISOFFACTORSAFFECTING
VOLTAGE PRODUCTION
The environmentalfactorswhichareaffectingthe
production ofvoltagehavebeenanalyzed.Thehumidity,
temperature andsoilmoisturehasbeentakenintoaccountfor
this study.Thisisdonebycollectingthesedatafromsensors
connected totheArduinoUNOandsendingthesedatatothe
Thingspeak cloudwiththehelpofNodeMCU.Thedatais
then analysedwiththehelpofthelinegraph.
The plantsconsideredforthisstudyareRose,AloeVera
and Hibiscusplant.Thevariationoftemperature,humidity
and soilmoistureintheAloeVera,Rose,andHibiscusplant
has beenshowninFig.4.,Fig.5.andFig.6.respectively.
To increasethevoltageproduction,theoptimum
environmental parameterscanbemaintained.Also,the
plants canbeconnectedinseriesasshowninFig.2.to
increase thevoltage.
Fig. 2.Roseplants(three)connectedinseries
The Fig.2.showsthatthreeRoseplants,whenconnected
in series,givesabout2.31V.Thiscanbeusedtolightupan
LED asshowninFig.3.
Fig. 3.GlowingofLEDfromplantvoltage
International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
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Volume 8, Issue 17
Special Issue – 2020
63
Fig. 4.VariationofvoltageinAloeVeraplant
Fig. 5.VariationofvoltageinRoseplant
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
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20.0
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7
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721880.712210.7
251
21
Voltage in V
Temperature in °CHumidityin%SoilMoisturein%
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
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0.0
6601.179491.237501.131151.14
4041.224611.179491.256841.18
27
1.108591.073141.121481.12471
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4041.1
1.2600 10.873340.860
61.192381.147270.986130.90
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83010.
0450.8411
10.873340.
Voltage in V
Temperature in °CHumidityin%SoilMoisturein%
International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
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Fig. 6.VariationofvoltageinHibiscusplant
It canbeseeninFig.4.,Fig.5.andFig.6.thatthe
voltage decreaseswithanincreaseinhumidity,
decrease intemperatureanddecreaseinsoilmoisture.
The suddenincreaseinthesoilmoistureisduetothe
watering oftheplantatthattime.Therefore,theplant
voltage isdirectlyproportionaltotemperatureandsoil
moisture whereasisinverselyproportionaltothe
humidity.
Thus, itcanbenotedthattheproductionofvoltage
not onlydependsononlyoneparameter,butit
depends onvariousenvironmentalandphysical
factors. Alltheseparametersaffectthevoltage
production fromplants,astheseparametersareinter-
related toeachother.
V. CONCLUSION
Thus, theperformanceevaluationofelectricity
generation fromlivingplantsisdone.Inthisproject,
the electriccurrentisproducedsuccessfully.The
effects ofvariousparametersarestudiedand,inthe
future, itmaybeconsideredtocontrolautomatically
the parameterchangesingardens.Also,theobtained
voltage canbeboostedtopowerupanyappliance.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wouldliketoexpressourdeepgratitudetoour
guide forenthusiasticencouragementandcontinuous
support. Weextendourthankstoourcoordinator&
Head, ECEfortheirpatientguidanceanduseful
critiques ofthiswork.Ourgratefulthanksarealso
extended totheManagement,fortheircontinuous
encouragement. Finally,wewishtothankourparents
for theirsupportandencouragementthroughoutthe
study.
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International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Published by, www.ijert.org
ICEECT – 2020 Conference Proceedings
Volume 8, Issue 17
Special Issue – 2020
65