Can Electricity From Trees Power Gadgets?

A new sensor system is under development that runs on electricity generated by ordinary trees! Apparently trees are capable of self-sustaining a reliable source of electricity. While a tree may not seem like much of a powerhouse, the "trickle charge" can add up, "just like a dripping faucet can fill a bucket over time," said Shuguang Zhang, one of the researchers on the project and the associate director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering (CBE).
MIT researchers now believe they can power a network of sensors connected directly to trees to perform a variety of tasks.

Trees could serve as “silent sentinels” along the nation's borders to detect potential threats such as smuggled radioactive materials—with the sensors powered by the trees themselves. They could also prevent forest fires, among other applications, by sending early reports to the authorities.

Right now, the U.S. Forest Service says that manually recharging or replacing batteries in remote automated weather stations, which usually have to be located in hard-to-reach places, makes things impractical and costly. The new sensor system would bypass this problem by tapping into trees as it’s very own self-sustaining power supply. Each sensor is equipped with an off-the-shelf battery that can be slowly recharged using electricity generated by the tree itself.

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 in Boise, Idaho.

Scientists have long known that trees can produce extremely small amounts of electricity. Yet no one knew exactly how the energy was produced or how to take advantage of their capacity to generate power. So, how does it work?

MIT colleagues recently reported the answer in the Public Library of Science ONE. "It's really a fairly simple phenomenon: An imbalance in pH between a tree and the soil it grows in," said Andreas Mershin, a postdoctoral associate at the CBE.

To solve the puzzle of where the voltage comes from, the team had to test a number of exotic theories using a slew of experiments that proved, among other things, that the electricity was not due to a simple electrochemical redox reaction (the type that powers the 'potato batteries' common in high school science labs, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_battery). The team also ruled out the source as due to coupling to underground power lines, radio waves or other electromagnetic interference.

Testing of the wireless sensor network, which is being developed by Voltree Power (http://voltreepower.com), is slated to begin in the spring on a 10-acre plot of land provided by the Forest Service.

According to first author of the paper, Christopher J. Love, the bioenergy harvester battery charger module and sensors are ready. "We expect that we'll need to instrument four trees per acre," he said, noting that the system is designed for easy installation by unskilled workers.

"Right now we're finalizing exactly how the wireless sensor network will be configured to use the minimum amount of power," he concluded.

Posted by Rebecca Sato

* Portions of this post were extracted from an MIT news release.

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Comments

[SD]

Trees aint ordinary!

[Free Xbox 360]

While cool and interesting, I'm not sure how practical that would be.

[LIsa Woods]

Hmmm, maybe if the tree rubs up against a power line!

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[800HighTech]

While this maybe true, it seems like a lot of info has been left out, perhaps they (researchers) just don't want to tell all?

[jer35mx]

The vision of the coyote running from place to place exploding, or a japanese sccientist with cell that charges with the skin and touches one such fixed tree and overcharges and go to the other and the same. Je, ok seriously, these could be very important for the future, as a low battery energy generator. But to an wicaan empathic with the trees that would be criminal, what would she feel a tension or humming?.

[Busby SEO Test]

so this is possible i actually some article about trees powers, nice article

[Online Resource]

The idea is cool, but how can we do that, just waiting for new technology in the future..

[automation]

so this is possible i actually some article about trees powers

[currency trading systems]

I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I mostly agree with you most of the point I have subscribed the feed and looking forward for the followup subscriptions

[Cheap Computers]

Trees apparently not looks as a power house but i am damn sure about inventors that they will definitely use these trees to generate some electricity in the recent future by using some advanced gadgets...........
http://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com

[sulumits retsambew]

this is cool most of electricity is comes from water etc.but this is amazing that comes from a tress.

[vijaya kumar]

It's true that power can be generated from trees, we have tested in our plytechnic, we got 500mV from ashoka tree with dissimilar electrodes .Voltage also varies fromm tree to tree.

[Bali Accommodation]

If someone can realize this idea...it will be good for the world. It's a new Green Energy resource