Research progress of plant power generation technology

With the excessive consumption of traditional fossil energy and the increasingly serious environmental pollution, the energy problem has become a major strategic issue affecting the sustainable development of a country and region. In recent years, countries around the world have actively formulated new energy development strategies, hoping to realize the transformation and upgrading of the energy structure, promote stable economic and social development, and continuously improve the ecological environment through the rational use of conventional energy and research and development of new clean energy. One of the most important uses of energy is to produce electricity for life. The traditional power generation technology is thermal power generation, which uses the heat energy generated by the combustion of fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas to heat water, transforming the water into high-temperature, high-pressure water vapor, and then the water vapor drives the generator to generate electricity. Although it has the characteristics of low investment and quick effect, it has serious environmental pollution and is difficult to meet the needs of sustainable green development. Technologies that use clean energy to generate power, such as wind power and solar power, are generally energy-saving and environmentally friendly. However, these power generation technologies and equipment are expensive, geographically dependent, and vulnerable to climate change, and need to be improved. The demand for electric energy acquisition in future social development can be summarized as "safe, efficient, sustainable, and low-cost", which should also be the constant pursuit of energy development.

The rapid development of science and technology has expanded the way of obtaining electric energy, and plant power generation technology is a new method of obtaining electric energy from plants. This technology uses plants as the main body of power generation, and effectively converts the inexhaustible light energy, mechanical energy and biomass energy in nature into electrical energy through electrochemical means, physiological processes of plants and interference from the external environment. And almost no pollution to the environment. Electricity is ubiquitous in plants, and each cell that constitutes a plant is a micro-generator. Many important life activities in plants are accompanied by the generation and transfer of electrons, such as respiration and photosynthesis. In the 20th century, British watchmaker Tony Eicher discovered that plants themselves can generate electricity. He inserted the lemon with copper wire and zinc wire respectively, connecting it to the motor and circuit on the small clock, and made the small clock work for up to 5 months. In addition, in order to verify the feasibility of chlorophyll power generation, Japanese researchers mixed chlorophyll extracted from spinach with lecithin, coated the mixture on a transparent tin oxide crystal sheet, and used it as a positive electrode in a "transparent battery". Under the irradiation of sunlight, current is generated, and the conversion efficiency can reach more than 3 times that of ordinary solar cells. However, chlorophyll and lecithin are easily decomposed after leaving the plant and lose their ability to absorb solar energy, so this battery cannot generate electricity for a long time. To this end, researchers in Cambridge, UK, directly use living plants to generate electricity. Studies have shown that a pot of ferns with a diameter of 1 m can generate nearly 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity per day in clear weather. The difference in pH between plants and nearby soil can also be used to obtain current output. Plant-e, a company founded by researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, uses this principle to continuously obtain electricity from growing plants to light city LED street lights at night.

Living plants have long lifespan, strong environmental adaptability, and rich species. Using living plants to generate electricity can solve many problems in military and civilian livelihoods. For example, the use of plant power generation and power supply systems that can adapt to harsh environments for stable and sustainable energy output can solve the problem of energy supply in the battlefield, and at the same time, it can reduce the carrying capacity of power generation and power supply equipment such as batteries during combat, thereby releasing energy to a large extent. manpower and increased mobility. In remote areas, the power supply problem caused by the lack of infrastructure has always hindered the economic development of these places. Applying plant power generation technology to remote areas can solve this problem to a certain extent. However, relatively speaking, the output power density provided by plant power generation and power supply technology is relatively small, and the power supply capacity is relatively limited. system charging, etc. In addition, the plant power generation and power supply technology can be combined with other power generation and power supply technologies to realize the data calculation processing, signal gain and signal return of the equipment. It can also supplement electric energy on the basis of the original power generation and power supply technology, prolong the running time of the equipment or directly supply power. To keep equipment running, like self-powered smart dust. Although the current maturity of this technology is relatively low, it has rich material sources, energy saving and environmental protection, and rational utilization of natural resources. If the energy output is improved, it has great application prospects and can promote the technology of energy enterprises. Innovation and transformation and upgrading of the energy structure.

Although the current plant power generation technology is still facing great challenges, with the continuous deepening of research, the power density output of this technology may achieve breakthroughs in the future, so that it can replace the traditional power generation technology and be applied on a large scale