Study on field experiments of forest soil thermoelectric power generation devices

Yongsheng Huang; Daochun Xu; Jiangming Kan; Wenbin Li

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0221019

Study on field experiments of forest soil thermoelectric power generation devices

PLoS One. 2019 Aug 9;14(8):e0221019. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221019. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Yongsheng Huang^{1

2}, Daochun Xu¹, Jiangming Kan¹, Wenbin Li¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Key Lab of State Forestry Administration on Forestry Equipment and Automation, Beijing, China.
² Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Abstract

As a new strategy to power forest wireless sensors in remote areas, an environmental microenergy collection device has been improved, and field experiments were carried out under natural conditions for the first time. The thermoelectric power generation devices used a gravity-assisted heat pipe to transmit heat from shallow soil to ground level, and a thermoelectric generator (TEG) was employed to generate electric power from the temperature difference between soil and air. Over the 6-month experimental period at two natural sites, approximately 128.74 J of energy could be harvested in a single day, and 5 209.92 J of energy could be harvested in a generation cycle. The results showed the feasibility of using this green energy to power wireless sensors in remote forests or other environments, This work is relevant to the current acute energy shortages and environmental pollution problems.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Electric Power Supplies*
Electricity
Forests*
Soil*
Temperature

Substances

Soil

Grants and funding

Thsi work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31670716)-No to WL; the China Postdoctoral Science Special Foundation (2016T90044)-No to DX and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015M570945)-No to DX. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.