So i was sitting and working on a multi-cell potato battery the other day when I had this interesting idea.
What would happen if I took a galvanized bolt and a bit of copper and put them into something like a tree. So I did. I hooked wires to both terminals
and ran a volt meter across this. And to my amazement I got a decent jump in voltages!
Now I have a few questions. The first being what electrolytes or substance is present in tree sap to allow the flow of electrons. (This was done using
a poplar tree.) Secondly is there a way I could boost the power coming from this to make it usable for small electronics. (I know its not much but
it's just cool.)
Lastly it seems copper proves toxic to trees, is there a metal that would work in its place?
-ssddnot_important - 8-8-2007 at 17:48
As a battery like that works by having a metal give up electrons and become an ion, just about any metal around is going to prove toxic to the plant
due to excessive levels of that metal ion. If you drew only the tiniest amount of current, it might get by, but you'd do better with a PV panel and an
ultracapacitor to store daylight power for use in the dark.
To increase current you need more electrode area, and/or lower electrolyte resistance. Lowering the resistance means having the electrodes closer
together or increasing the electrolyte conductivity, which is sure to screw the tree up.
To boost voltage, you need to chose electrodes at extremes of the electromotive scale, or to stack cells in series - difficult to do unless you used
multiple trees.The_Davster - 8-8-2007 at 18:07
How much voltage came out of the tree?
You should see the differences in volatges between types of trees at constant electrode spacings. I am especially interested in the relative voltage
of fatwood.
Copper may be toxic to trees, but would it not end up the anode and not corrode, wheras the iron(or if galvanized, zinc) cathode would? And I am sure
iron has a much lower toxicity to trees.
Where the heck is my voltmeter? I have a very sappy fig tree I want to try this on.ssdd - 8-8-2007 at 18:43
Iron may be worth giving a try. When I did this originally I did it with my electrodes pretty close to one another (aprox 3-5 inches apart)
I also tried putting multiple sets of electrodes into the same tree. This seemed to not have much effect on the voltages coming out of the tree.
I thought that this would perhaps work better on sappier trees but haven't got around to trying this just yet, but I intend to.
Leme know what results you get Davster
-ssddYT2095 - 9-8-2007 at 00:46
putting copper nails into a tree is the old way of killing them! I hope you removed it after.
Alu and Iron is also interesting, as it will swap polarities with ph Change vulture - 9-8-2007 at 14:15
The tree is just your medium. The oxidation of the iron is giving you the electricity, not the trees. Otherwise salt water could solve the worlds
energy problems.solo - 9-8-2007 at 15:56
There are those that believe they can harness 12 volts ............and plan to invest on a pilot model...........read,
Now how the hell does that magnet thing work, if it's doing anything at all?
The bit about algae is interesting, did some work with biodiesel in the past when I worked on my high schools alternative fuel program. Never thought
of algae as a source.
-ssddhinz - 10-8-2007 at 14:24
I've a better idea, buy an E. electricus, alias Electric eel and make an electrode at the front and back of it, it produces 500V @1A, you just need an
5:1 transformer if you life in US, than you can use it to power your radio, but you have to feed him with biomaterial (really enviromental) and make
him angry if you want some "output"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel)not_important - 10-8-2007 at 22:19
Quote:
Originally posted by ssdd
Now how the hell does that magnet thing work, if it's doing anything at all?
If you mean the electricity_from_plants one, I think it is bogus. Note that the demonstrator has their fingers across the bare wires, and the bulb
seems to have an unusual interior structure. It looks a lot like a trick one you could buy when I was a kid, there's a battery in the bulb or bulb
base, as well as a low voltage filament in vac. or small light bulb. The wire is simply completing the circuit which allows the bulb to light. These
days they may use a white LED instead of an incandescent filament.
There is a way to generate electricity from a plant without using reactive electrodes, that is no battery is formed. This method uses the streaming
potential, the voltage potential formed when a liquid is forces through a capillary or porous solid. The flow of the sap through the xylem vessels
and tracheids.
This voltage is tapped using electrodes at two different heights in the plant, or one electrode in the plant and another in the ground.
