Plant-e: Plants Generating Electricity Plants generating electricity? Can a lawn charge your electric car? Can a wetland or rice paddy field be turned into a power plant without harvesting the plants? Plant-e is a company that develops and produces products in which living plants generate electricity.
Living plants in microbial fuel cells might be integrated in wetlands to create large-scale green powerplants. How does that work? Plants photosynthesize organic matter using solar energy. A significant part of this organic matter is released into the soil. There electrochemically active micro-organisms break down the organic matter producing electrons which are transported to the anode of the fuel cell. The energy rich electrons flow through a load to the cathode to generate 24 hours per day electricity. The idea for this technology came from Dr. ir. Bert Hamelers. In 2008 the proof-of-principle of the technology was published(Strik et al. 2008; De Schamphelaire et al. 2008). From 2009 to 2012 an
European consortium explored new areas of science to develop the plant-microbial fuel cell. This project resulted in spin-off companyPlant-e that develops and produces products in which living plants generate electricity. 00:00 01:51
KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Worldwide 1.2 Billion people have no access to electricity at all. A lot of these people live in rural areas in developing countries. They do not have a small lamp to read by, no electricity for cooking and can’t even imagine putting up lights in a funny looking Christmas tree. Plant-e develops products that generate electricity with living plants. While the plant is growing, electricity is produced. We are a small start-up company with ambitious goals. We want to develop our technology and products so we can generate electricity worldwide, both in urbanized and rural areas. With Plant-e technology we can change the way the world thinks about electricity production: natural areas can be conserved, and the production of food and feed could be combined with production of electricity. Worldwide this could be a huge transformation. Especially in places where it is needed the most, where they have no access to electricity available at all. In this crowdfund campaign you can choose to either support our company in our goals by choosing a cool reward, or choose to support our social projects directly by donating a Plant-e Module to our projects in developing countries. (Or do both!) Look around and take your pick! 01:56
THE TECHNOLOGY
At Plant-e we develop and produce products that generate electricity with living plants. While the plant is growing it produces organic matter. Part of this organic matter is used by the plant to grow, and part of it is excreted into the soil via the roots. Around these roots bacteria break down this organic matter and in this breakdown-process they release electrons. We work with a technology that makes it possible to capture these electrons in a carbon (non-reactive!) electrode and transport it to a counter electrode (carbon as well): now we’ve built a green battery!
THE NUMBERS Research and calculations tell us that, once optimized, we could produce up to 3.2 W/m2 in North-Western Europe. This means that with 100 square meters you could produce up to 2800 kWh/year. To put this into perspective: a regular Dutch household uses 3500 kWh per year. One
hundred square meters could provide 80% of the electricity demand! When we move closer to the equator this output increases, because solar radiation becomes higher.
THE PLAN Plant-e technology was created and tested in a lab, which is great for the scientific underpinning. But to make this technology useful we’ve got to get out of the lab and get into the “real world”. To do this we’ve created modules in which technology and plants are integrated. These modules can be placed on any flat surface (e.g. roundabout, in a park, on a roof) and produce electricity for LED lights, WiFi hotspots and other low voltage applications. The first 2 systems of 100 square meters are placed at two sites in the Netherlands (Ede/Wageningen and Zaandam).
Launch Ede If we really want to be able to generate a larger amount of electricity (which we do want!), we have to think bigger than systems of 100 square meters. Therefore, we are also working on the development of a system for large-scale application: a tubular system that can be implemented in existing green (wet)lands and generate electricity with the plants that are already present (such as grass, reed, rice). The prototype of the tube is ready and it has tested positively. So now it’s time to start gathering money for the next step.
Electricity plant of the future!
THE PLANT-E DIY-BOXES If you have assembled the DIY-kits, it will look like this (the green Plant pot is the one included):
DIY-kits
There are different items included in the DIY-boxes, in the large DIY-box the following items are included:
Materials for 25 DIY-kits
LED light
Multimeter
Comprehensive teacher’s instructions
Detailed instructions for the class to assemble the individual DIY-kits The following pictures will give you an impression of the contents:
Content of the DIY-boxes The large DIY-box is delivered in a box, which will look like this:
The Plant-e DIY-box The Plant-e DIY-kit or box @home includes:
Materials for 5 plantbatteries.
LED light
Comprehensive teacher’s instructions
Detailed instructions to assemble the individual DIY-kits The Plant-e modulair system
Plant-e modules
