{"id":25490,"date":"2018-07-15T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T05:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=318402"},"modified":"2018-10-25T11:26:05","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T11:26:05","slug":"plant-e-heats-shoots-and-leaves-electricity-from-living-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2018\/07\/15\/plant-e-heats-shoots-and-leaves-electricity-from-living-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant-e: roots, shoots, leaves — electricity from living plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"— the story —<\/span><\/p>\n

Plants could soon provide our electricity. In a small way they already are doing that in research labs and greenhouses at project Plant-e — a university and commercially sponsored research group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The Plant Microbial Fuel Cell from Plant-e can generate electricity from the natural interaction between plant roots and soil bacteria. It works by taking advantage of the up to 70 percent of organic material produced by a plant’s photo-synthesis<\/a> process that cannot be used by the plant — and is excreted through the roots.<\/p>\n

As natural occurring bacteria around the roots break down this organic residue, electrons are released as a waste product. By placing an electrode close to the bacteria to absorb these electrons, the research team — led by Marjolein Helder PhD — is able to generate electricity.<\/p>\n

Helder said: “Solar panels are making more energy per square meter — but we expect to reduce the costs of our system technology in the future. And our system can be used for a variety of applications.”<\/p>\n

Plant Microbial Fuel Cells can be used on many scales. An experimental 15 square meter model can produce enough energy to power a computer notebook. Plant-e is working on a system for large scale electricity production in existing green areas like wetlands and rice paddy fields.<\/p>\n

Helder said: “Our technology is making electricity — but also could be used as roof insulation or as a water collector. On a bigger scale it’s possible to produce rice and electricity at the same time, and in that way combine food and energy production.”<\/p>\n

A first prototype of a green electricity roof has been installed on one building at Wageningen University and researchers are keeping a close eye on what is growing there. The first field pilots will be started in 2014. The technology was patented in 2007.<\/p>\n

After 5 years of lab research: Plant-e is now taking the first steps toward commercializing the technology. In the future, bio-electricity from plants could produce as much as 3.2 watts per square meter of plant growth.<\/p>\n

w. descriptions from:<\/span> EuroNews<\/p>\n

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on the web<\/span> | essentials<\/p>\n

Plant-e | main<\/a>
\nPlant-e | brochure<\/a>
\nPlant-e | YouTube channel<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n

video<\/span> | Plant-e
\nelectricity from plants<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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watch<\/span> | videos from Plant-e<\/p>\n

Plant-e | video: animation<\/a>
\nPlant-e | video: the power of plants<\/a>
\nPlant-e | video: the next step in development<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

on the web<\/span> | research<\/p>\n

Wageningen Univ. | main<\/a>
\nWageningen Univ. | research institutes: plant research<\/a>
\nWageningen Univ. | research institutes: centre for development innovation<\/a>
\nWageningen Univ. | story: Dutch Innovation Award for Plant-e<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

[ story file ]<\/p>\n

story title:
\ndeck:
\nyear: 2018
\nposted: by managing editor<\/p>\n

section: the digest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

— the story — Plants could soon provide our electricity. In a small way they already are doing that in research labs and greenhouses at project Plant-e — a university and commercially sponsored research group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The Plant Microbial Fuel Cell from Plant-e can generate electricity from the natural interaction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":454,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25490"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27621,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25490\/revisions\/27621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}