Electricity from trees?
Electricity from trees?
(OP)
Plugged in: Startup hopes to tap electricity from trees
“Lagadonis said tests have generated 0.8 volts to 1.2 volts by driving an aluminum roofing nail half an inch into a tree attached to a copper water pipe driven 7 inches into the ground. But the electricity is useless because it's unstable and fluctuates.”
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RE: Electricity from trees?
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Electricity from trees?
Aluminium has 1.3 V
Copper is –0.345 V
The difference is 1.3-(-0.345)=1.645 V
RE: Electricity from trees?
RE: Electricity from trees?
I think I know people who got the little kit to make a potatoe powered clock as a kid, I certainly recall seeing it on TV or in some kids science book.
Anyway seems odd. In the unlikely event it leads anywhere cool but I'm extremely sceptical.
RE: Electricity from trees?
This seems to me like an electrolytic cell where aluminium nail act as anode and copper water pipe, work as cathode the electrolyte would be the plant sap.
luis
RE: Electricity from trees?
I used to have a long-wire antenna going from the house to a tree. The antenna would easily light several neon bulbs. Maybe I sould claim that I developed it first and get my own venture capital funding!
RE: Electricity from trees?
RE: Electricity from trees?
Cut the damn thing down and throw it into my stove. Saves my electricity heating bill. Problem solved.
Frank "Grimey" Grimes
Rule 25. of Swanson's "Unwritten Rules of Management"
Have fun at what you do. It will reflect in your work. No one likes a grump except another grump.
RE: Electricity from trees?
RE: Electricity from trees?
Perhaps even better, cut down the tree & burn it for engergy. Then replace it with a more rapidly growing crop to repeat the cycle.
Obviously this doesn't take into account other environmental issues but...
RE: Electricity from trees?
As trees will have lots of led lights, during the night the photosynthesis will keep going on and the release of CO2 will be substantial lowered.
At Christmas times it will not be necessary to buy lots and tots of made in china Christmas lights because trees will be already lightened.
Luis marques
RE: Electricity from trees?
The correct method for drawing energy from trees requires a knowledge of Latin (Acer saccharum), climatology, machining/woodworking & gravitational flow:*
Tapping into source:
Sophisticated collection network:
Thermophysical concentration:
Quality engineers:
Energy content of product is 50 Kcal/tablespoon
(Note: A food Calorie = 1000 scientific calories)
*Fortunately, the Native Americans had developed the process eons ago, so no need to depend upon the idiots mentioned in the OP!
RE: Electricity from trees?
Rather than directly heating your home, use the wood to boil water, run a heat engine by steam, run a heat pump by heat engine and use the discharged heat from both heat engine and heat pump into your house. You will have more heat energy now.(Courtesy : Lord Kelvin)
I will never know whether this is a technical calculation or entrepreneurial
RE: Electricity from trees?
Or do you mean more useful energy/able to make use of more of the energy?
RE: Electricity from trees?
RE: Electricity from trees?
I was never any good at thermodynamics (not too bad at propulsion though strangely) so I may well be wrong.
Perhaps I was harsh in my previous post about engineering journalism and am no better myself.
RE: Electricity from trees?
RE: Electricity from trees?
RE: Electricity from trees?
But a steam engine running at 200 C, even into 20C heat sink, cannot exceed
1-293/473 =38% efficiency
So for every kW of fuel in you might get .38*7 =3 kW of heat out
Admittedly you might manage better than a CP of 7, as a lot of your reject heat will be available, and at more than 20 deg C, but this cuts into your steam engine efficiency. Interesting tradeoff actually - given a required output heating temperature Tout, and a given upper temperature TH, and a given environmental temperature Tin, what is the optimum cold side temperature TC of the Carnot cycle that is providing the mechanical energy? I suspect it depends on how much plant complexity you are prepared to buy.
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Electricity from trees?