The Study of Bioelectricity on the Trees and Their Applications as Power Sources

By

P. Venkata Sai Vamsi,

B.Tech 4th year, E.E,

IIT Indore.

What is Bioelectricity?

• Bioelectricity involves the electrical voltages and currents that are present in living tissues, their

causes and their consequences.

• When did the study of Bioelectricity began?

The study of bioelectricity started in early 1700’s by Galvani.

A portrayal from a famous

Japanese comic show

How is it different from the electricity of batteries?

What happens, when you throw a battery into the

ocean?

It corrodes

Just in contrast, what happens to a fish

(biological system)?

It will be fine

Bioelectricity – in human body

Jack, how old are you?

How does Jack’s communication system works?

• It is electrical and it is fast.

• It creates its own voltages, generate pulses, and propagates them from their source to their

destination.

• Their pulses carry information from one site to another.

• Bioelectric potentials potentials produced by batteries

• Bioelectrical current – flow of ions.

How does the neuron’s work?

• Neurons conduct electrical impulses by using the Action Potential. This phenomenon is generated

through the flow of positively charged ions across the neuronal membrane.

Contd.

THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BANK

The Body Charger

• Enhances the bioelectrical and biochemical functions of cells by

saturating them with energy.

• The cell has an approximate electrical potential of 70 mill volts

(mV). An aged cell has 50 mV, and a diseased cell 15 mV.

• The Body Charger charges the cells, just like charging our cell

phones, thus increasing our body’s energy!

Electro Acupuncture

Bioelectricity – in plants

• Let us consider an old, famous experiment, making a battery out of potato.

• Potatoes are the nature’s version of battery acid.

• They are acidic in nature.

Study of Bioelectricity in Trees

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

found about sustained voltage differences of

around 200 mV between the nails inserted

into tree trunks and another electrodes

planted into the adjacent soil.

• It is due to simple pH difference between the

tree and the soil.

Paper focuses at…

• Studying the values of the electric potential

differences of trees and their variation during the

four seasons.

• Using that electric potential as a power resource for

low voltage devices such as wireless sensor network,

single-chip microcomputers and to provide them a

stable and reliable environment energy.(a) broad-leaved tree

(left) and coniferous

tree (right)

(b) ginkgo tree

Measurement Method

• Insert the copper screws into the tree trunk and root, and plant

an iron screw into the surrounding soil.

• Measure the bioelectric current and voltage between trunk &

soil and root & soil.

• Measure the bioelectric current and voltage both in the trunk

and in the root for the three trees, along with environment

humidity and temperature.

Measurement results and analysis

Contd.

Measured for broad leaf tree.

Contd.

• Ginkgo has 600 ~ 800 mV voltage differences and 5 ~30 µA current.

• A broad-leaved tree has 500 ~ 750 mV voltage differences and 6 ~ 40 µA current.

• Coniferous tree has 350 ~ 700 mV voltage differences and 3 ~20 µA current.

• From the point view of using the bioelectricity of tree as power source, the broad-leaved tree may

be the most suitable tree species for the power source among the three trees, because it has both

larger voltage difference and current.

Application

Contd.

Preventing forest fires with tree power

• Each sensor is equipped with an off-the-shelf battery that can be

slowly recharged using electricity generated by the tree.

• The system produces enough electricity to allow the temperature

and humidity sensors to wirelessly transmit signals four times a

day, or immediately if there's a fire. Each signal hops from one

sensor to another, until it reaches an existing weather station that

beams the data by satellite to a forestry command center

Conclusion’s from the paper

• The lower the temperature is, the smaller the bioelectric data of trees. The humidity has big

influence on current, the greater the humidity, the greater the current.

• Based on the measured bioelectricity data of the trees, the paper explored the technical proposal to

harvesting the energy from trees.

• Preliminary energy harvesting solution from trees energy sources to power a Microprocessor with a

Wireless Transmitter is proposed in the paper.