Research on Characteristics and Harvesting Circuit of Standing Tree Bioelectricity

Abstract

Experiments of the bioelectricity in four species of standing trees in Beijing Forestry University have been carried out. According to the experiments, no correlation between bioelectricity and electrode position on the trunk was found. Clear correlation between bioelectricity and tree species was found. Based on the experimental results, a circuit for harvesting bioelectricity has been proposed. The testing results and feasibility analysis showed that 0.387 J bioelectricity energy from 20 outputs of bioelectricity of a ginkgo tree in parallel could be stored in a lithium battery during 3.8 hours, except the energy consumption of energy harvesting circuit and sensor node. The results showed that it is feasible to harvest bioelectricity of standing trees for powering the sensor nodes in forests.