Renewable Energy Electricity From Plants Plant Eco Generator

To introduce a new way of generating electricity from plants instead of exhaustible fossil fuels

Materials Required:

• Plants

• Anode (Iron plate)

• Cathode (copper plate)

• Containers(non-conductive)

• Wires (for connecting plants)

• Multimeter (showing voltage output)

Procedure:

• Select the desired plants (e.g. Holy basin, Aloe Vera), Pot the plants in the container.

• Place the anode near the root of the plant and make sure that the anode is fully submerged in soil.

• Place the cathode in the other end of container and make sure that the cathode is exposed in the air and not in contact with anode.

• Name the plants container 1, 2, 3 then connect the cathode of plant 1 to the anode of plant 2 and cathode of plant 2 to anode of plant 3 and so on.

• Connect the multimeter to the + and – output to show readings

Illustration:

• The excess glucose created by the plant is drained into the soil

• Microorganisms named as exoelectrogens (geobactor) take up these nutrients and release electrons as part of their metabolic process

• These electrons are absorbed by the anode and the cathode, which in turn creates a flow of electrons.

Result:

• The generation of electricity is directly dependent on the rate of photosynthesis.

• The electricity produced in a day is given in the graph below.

Reference:

• Plant microbial fuel cells: A promising biosystems engineering by Rachnarin Nitisoravut, Roshan Regmi

• Design criteria for the Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell by Marjolein Helder (PhD Thesis)