Plants can serve as a long-term renewable energy source: study

Plants seem to have the power to emit an electrical potential when they draw water from their roots to nourish their stems and leaves.

Scientists investigated the ability of this additional electricity charge to tap into a potential renewable energy source. The movement of ions and water within the plant’s structure allowed them to use a new energy source.

This particularly sheds light on the circadian rhythms that allow plants to adapt and cope with changing environmental conditions, as well as their ability to synchronize with predictable changes, such as the change from day to night.

In particular, the researchers analyzed water hyacinths and lucky bamboo, which generated an electrical rhythm that could be used as an environmentally friendly energy source.

Circadian rhythm affects electricity

The scientists’ statement noted that, like all living things, plants are subject to circadian rhythms. In plants, this circadian cycle involves capturing light for photosynthesis, absorbing water and nutrients during the day, while growth processes slow down at night.

Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur conducted a study showing the biological potential of plants to generate voltage.

“This streaming potential, which is essentially a consequence of the natural energy stored in the power plant, provides a renewable energy source that is continuous and can be sustainable over a long period of time,” said author Suman Chakraborty.

“The question we wanted to answer was how much potential can it produce, and how does the plant’s biological clock affect the electrical potential?”

To study the energy potential, scientists inserted electrodes into the stems of water hyacinths and attached tanks with electrodes to the lucky bamboo.

Eureka: Plants produce electricity in a cyclical rhythm

Experiments have shown that the electrical potential of plants varies in a cyclical rhythm corresponding to their daily biological processes. This potential increases as the ion concentration decreases or the pH in the fluid increases, linking it to the mechanisms of water transpiration and ion transport in the plant.

“Our eureka moment came when our first experiments showed that it was possible to generate electricity in a cyclical rhythm and to precisely link this circadian rhythm inherent to the plant,” Chakraborty added. “We could determine exactly how this is related to water transpiration and the ions that the plant transfers through rising sap.”

Chakraborty also noted that researchers had not only rediscovered the plant’s electrical rhythm, expressing it in terms of voltages and currents, but also potentially derived electricity from them in a sustainable way, without impacting the environment and without disturbing the ecosystem.

“The findings could help develop biomimetic, nature-inspired systems that can address the global energy crisis with an eco-friendly, sustainable solution in which planting trees not only alleviates the crises of climate change and deteriorating environmental quality, but also provides way to deal with the crisis is to use electricity from it.”

The findings showed that plants produce an electrical potential that varies depending on their daily biological cycles.

This has led experts to believe that natural electrical potential can be harnessed as a renewable, environmentally friendly energy source, offering a sustainable solution to the world’s energy crisis without harming the environment.

The study was published in the journal Fluid physics.