Potential application of Aloe Vera-derived plant-based cell in powering wireless device for remote sensor activation

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 12; p. e0227153
• Main Authors: Chong, Peng Lean, Singh, Ajay Kumar, Kok, Swee Leong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 27.12.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Aloe; Aloe - metabolism; Bioelectric Energy Sources; Biology and Life Sciences; Circuit design; Communications systems; Electric potential; Electricity; Energy; Energy harvesting; Energy management; Energy storage; Engineering and Technology; Environmental effects; Equipment Design; Experiments; Farms; Internet of Things; Leaves; Magnetic fields; Management; Multimedia; Photovoltaic cells; Plant Leaves - metabolism; Power management; Radio frequency; Rechargeable batteries; Remote sensors; Renewable energy sources; Reservoir storage; Sensors; Storage reservoirs; Transmitters; Trees; Voltage; Wind power; Wireless sensor networks; Wireless Technology - instrumentation; Malaysia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227153

It is well proven that electrical energy can be harvested from the living plants which can be used as a potential renewable energy source for powering wireless devices in remote areas where replacing or recharging the battery is a difficult task. Therefore, harvesting electrical energy from living plants in remote areas such as in farms or forest areas can be an ideal source of energy as these areas are rich with living plants. The present paper proposes a design of a power management circuit that can harness, store and manage the electrical energy which is harvested from the leaves of Aloe Barbadensis Miller (Aloe Vera) plants to trigger a transmitter load to power a remote sensor. The power management circuit consists of two sections namely; an energy storage system that acts as an energy storage reservoir to store the energy harvested from the plants as well as a voltage regulation system which is used to boost and manage the energy in accordance to a load operation. The experimental results show that the electrical energy harvested from the Aloe Vera under a specific setup condition can produce an output of 3.49 V and 1.1 mA. The harvested energy is being channeled to the power management circuit which can boost the voltage to 10.9 V under no load condition. The harvested energy from the plants boosted by the power management circuit can turn ON the transmitter automatically to activate a temperature and humidity sensor to measure the environmental stimuli periodically with a ton of 1.22 seconds and toff of 0.46 seconds. This proves that this new source of energy combined with a power management circuit can be employed for powering the wireless sensor network for application in the Internet of Things (IoT).