Groundbreaking research reveals how the natural rhythms of plants can be tapped as a renewable energy source, offering a sustainable solution to the global energy crisis.
Plants’ Wired World of Electricity
Plants create electric potential when they pull water up from the roots a talent that can be used to generate electricity in a way similar to innovative feats of energy conversion used at ambitious future-powered flight projects, according to recent MIT research. The ‘streaming potential’, as it is known, is related to the plant’s biological clock by researchers at IIT Kharagpur.
Published in Physics of Fluids, the research shows that as plants undergo daily cycles of water absorption and photosynthesis, they are actively regulating the fluid (or sap) movements between cells − an action driven by ions through creating an electric rhythm that follows the intrinsic day-night rhythm of the plant. These researchers were able to measure that voltage response, raising the possibility of harnessing this natural electricity in a renewable and environmentally safe way.
Using the Plant’s Bio-Clock
They stuck electrodes into water hyacinth stems and attached reservoirs of electrodes to lucky bamboo shoots to see how electrical potential changes with the specific ions, ion concentration, and pH of the fluid pumped through the plants. The researchers determined that the electric streaming potential is inversely proportional to the ion concentration, or directly proportional to the pH of the fluid.
The discovery is important because it will enable the development of biomimetic, nature-inspired devices that can produce electricity (or other energy carriers) from plants without altering them, opening up possibilities for exploiting one of Nature’s most common forms of free energy. With the technology developed, the authors argue that this could be a game-changer to address the global energy crisis wherever trees can grow, not only does planting trees have potential benefits to ease climate change and environmental degradation but would also provide us with a sustainable source of electricity.
Conclusion
The new research on the electric movement inside the plants & their relation with the clock has a lifelong mystery that has unraveled new exciting potential for green power. Energy production technology that harnesses the power of plants to bring solutions against global energy crises can solve the problem and also help push a greener planet thanks to being environmentally friendly sustainable systems. Its advances are expected to revolutionize renewable energy as well as our alliance with nature.
