Flora Health Wireless Monitoring with Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract We propose a self-sustainable wireless sensor node capable to monitor both environmental data and flora health state, exploiting a Microbial Fuel Cell combined with a plant. This bio-electrochemical system is used both as a power generator to supply the wireless embedded electronics and as a biosensor for estimating the status of the plant. We demonstrate that the sub-milliwatt power provided by the fuel cell is enough for achieving an energy-neutral smart sensor that samples and sends data. Moreover, the rate of the harvested power is correlated with the health of the flora living in symbiosis with the bacteria colony. The proposed system has been conceived to address the needs of future smart agriculture applications, providing an unobtrusive and energy neutral monitoring system open to a broad range of applications, thanks to the bacteria species that populate almost any soil on Earth

Self-Powered Biosensors

Self-powered electrochemical biosensors utilize biofuel cells as a simultaneous power source and biosensor, which simplifies the biosensor system, because it no longer requires a potentiostat, power for the potentiostat, and/or power for the signaling device. This review article is focused on detailing the advances in the field of self-powered biosensors and discussing their advantages and limitations compared to other types of electrochemical biosensors. The review will discuss self-powered biosensors formed from enzymatic biofuel cells, organelle-based biofuel cells, and microbial fuel cells. It also discusses the different mechanisms of sensing, including utilizing the analyte being the substrate/fuel for the biocatalyst, the analyte binding the biocatalyst to the electrode surface, the analyte being an inhibitor of the biocatalyst, the analyte resulting in the blocking of the bioelectrocatalytic response, the analyte reactivating the biocatalyst, Boolean logic gates, and combining affinity-based biorecognition elements with bioelectrocatalytic power generation. The final section of this review details areas of future investigation that are needed in the field, as well as problems that still need to be addressed by the field

Internet of Harvester Nano Things: A Future Prospects

The advancements in nanotechnology, material science, and electrical engineering have shrunk the sizes of electronic devices down to the micro/nanoscale. This brings the opportunity of developing the Internet of Nano Things (IoNT), an extension of the Internet of Things (IoT). With nanodevices, numerous new possibilities emerge in the biomedical, military fields, and industrial products. However, a continuous energy supply is needed for these devices to work. At the micro/nanoscale, batteries cannot supply this demand due to size limitations and the limited energy contained in the batteries. Internet of Harvester Nano Things (IoHNT), a concept of Energy Harvesting (EH), which converts the existing different energy sources, which otherwise would be dissipated to waste, into electrical energy via electrical generators. Sources for EH are abundant, from sunlight, sound, water, and airflow to living organisms. IoHNT methods are significant assets to ensure the proper operation of the IoNT; thus, in this review, we comprehensively investigate the most useful energy sources and IoHNT principles to power the nano/micro-scaled electronic devices with the scope of IoNT. We discuss the IoHNT principles, material selections, challenges, and state-of-the-art applications of each energy source for both in-vivo and in vitro applications. Finally, we present the latest challenges of EH along with future research directions to solve the problems regarding constructing continuous IoNT containing various self-powered nanodevices. Therefore, IoHNT represents a significant shift in nanodevice power supply, leading us towards a future where wireless technology is widespread. Hence, it will motivate researchers to envision and contribute to the advancement of the following power revolution in IoNT, providing unmatched simplicity and efficiency

Energy harvesting and wireless transfer in sensor network applications: Concepts and experiences

Advances in micro-electronics and miniaturized mechanical systems are redefining the scope and extent of the energy constraints found in battery-operated wireless sensor networks (WSNs). On one hand, ambient energy harvesting may prolong the systems lifetime or possibly enable perpetual operation. On the other hand, wireless energy transfer allows systems to decouple the energy sources from the sensing locations, enabling deployments previously unfeasible. As a result of applying these technologies to WSNs, the assumption of a finite energy budget is replaced with that of potentially infinite, yet intermittent, energy supply, profoundly impacting the design, implementation, and operation of WSNs. This article discusses these aspects by surveying paradigmatic examples of existing solutions in both fields and by reporting on real-world experiences found in the literature. The discussion is instrumental in providing a foundation for selecting the most appropriate energy harvesting or wireless transfer technology based on the application at hand. We conclude by outlining research directions originating from the fundamental change of perspective that energy harvesting and wireless transfer bring about

Internet of Things in Agricultural Innovation and Security

The agricultural Internet of Things (Ag-IoT) paradigm has tremendous potential in transparent integration of underground soil sensing, farm machinery, and sensor-guided irrigation systems with the complex social network of growers, agronomists, crop consultants, and advisors. The aim of the IoT in agricultural innovation and security chapter is to present agricultural IoT research and paradigm to promote sustainable production of safe, healthy, and profitable crop and animal agricultural products. This chapter covers the IoT platform to test optimized management strategies, engage farmer and industry groups, and investigate new and traditional technology drivers that will enhance resilience of the farmers to the socio-environmental changes. A review of state-of-the-art communication architectures and underlying sensing technologies and communication mechanisms is presented with coverage of recent advances in the theory and applications of wireless underground communications. Major challenges in Ag-IoT design and implementation are also discussed

DESIGN OF RELIABLE AND SUSTAINABLE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS: CHALLENGES, PROTOCOLS AND CASE STUDIES

Integrated with the function of sensing, processing, and wireless communication, wireless sensors are attracting strong interest for a variety of monitoring and control applications. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been deployed for industrial and remote monitoring purposes. As energy shortage is a worldwide problem, more attention has been placed on incorporating energy harvesting devices in WSNs. The main objective of this research is to systematically study the design principles and technical approaches to address three key challenges in designing reliable and sustainable WSNs; namely, communication reliability, operation with extremely low and dynamic power sources, and multi-tier network architecture. Mathematical throughput models, sustainable WSN communication strategies, and multi-tier network architecture are studied in this research to address these challenges, leading to protocols for reliable communication, energy-efficient operation, and network planning for specific application requirements. To account for realistic operating conditions, the study has implemented three distinct WSN testbeds: a WSN attached to the high-speed rotating spindle of a turning lathe, a WSN powered by a microbial fuel cell based energy harvesting system, and a WSN with a multi-tier network architecture. With each testbed, models and protocols are extracted, verified and analyzed. Extensive research has studied low power WSNs and energy harvesting capabilities. Despite these efforts, some important questions have not been well understood. This dissertation addresses the following three dimensions of the challenge. First, for reliable communication protocol design, mathematical throughput or energy efficiency estimation models are essential, yet have not been investigated accounting for specific application environment characteristics and requirements. Second, for WSNs with energy harvesting power sources, most current networking protocols do not work efficiently with the systems considered in this dissertation, such as those powered by extremely low and dynamic energy sources. Third, for multi-tier wireless network system design, routing protocols that are adaptive to real-world network conditions have not been studied. This dissertation focuses on these questions and explores experimentally derived mathematical models for designing protocols to meet specific application requirements. The main contributions of this research are 1) for industrial wireless sensor systems with fast-changing but repetitive mobile conditions, understand the performance and optimal choice of reliable wireless sensor data transmission methods, 2) for ultra-low energy harvesting wireless sensor devices, design an energy neutral communication protocol, and 3) for distributed rural wireless sensor systems, understand the efficiency of realistic routing in a multi-tier wireless network. Altogether, knowledge derived from study of the systems, models, and protocols in this work fuels the establishment of a useful framework for designing future WSNs

Power Approaches for Implantable Medical Devices.

Implantable medical devices have been implemented to provide treatment and to assess in vivo physiological information in humans as well as animal models for medical diagnosis and prognosis, therapeutic applications and biological science studies. The advances of micro/nanotechnology dovetailed with novel biomaterials have further enhanced biocompatibility, sensitivity, longevity and reliability in newly-emerged low-cost and compact devices. Close-loop systems with both sensing and treatment functions have also been developed to provide point-of-care and personalized medicine. Nevertheless, one of the remaining challenges is whether power can be supplied sufficiently and continuously for the operation of the entire system. This issue is becoming more and more critical to the increasing need of power for wireless communication in implanted devices towards the future healthcare infrastructure, namely mobile health (m-Health). In this review paper, methodologies to transfer and harvest energy in implantable medical devices are introduced and discussed to highlight the uses and significances of various potential power sources

Developing Energy Harvest Efficient Strategies with Microbial Fuel Cells

Nowadays, thinking of energetic efficiency is to determine how to decrease consumption and to reuse resources. This is a major concern when addressing hydric resources. The consumption of drinking water is seeing an unaffordable growth and, although most of it is replenished to the environment, the water quality is affected by pollutants and impurities. As such, using wastewater, a by-product of our routine and way of life, as resource is an asset. Even more when thinking about the heightened energy costs of a wastewater treatment station. The hypotheses of this work show how to achieve this goal by using microbial fuel cells. The organic composition of this water increases its energy production potential, where the bacterial metabolism can be used to, simultaneously, produce energy and help to clean the water. This document is divided in 5 chapters. The strategic positioning of the theme happens in chapter 1. Chapter 2 explains how the main elements of microbial fuel cell technology can work and determine its operation. In chapter 3, the power management systems used with microbial fuel cells are presented and discussed, with the identification of optimization strategies. The second-to-last chapter corresponds to the experimental results discussion and validation, while focusing improved energy production efficiencies. The outputs of this chapter pilot the future work analysis on chapter 5, together with the main conclusions and research trends. The validity and usefulness of this work is cleared with an application example.Pensar em economia energética é, hoje, considerar soluções para a redução de consumo e reutilização de recursos. Esta preocupação é importante ao examinar a utilização dos recursos hídricos. O consumo de água potável está a crescer insustentavelmente e, apesar de grande parte desse consumo ser restituído ao meio ambiente, a qualidade da água é afetada por poluentes ou impurezas. A utilização de água residual, um produto da nossa rotina e qualidade de vida, como um recurso é, por isso, uma mais valia. É ainda mais evidente ao considerar os elevados consumos energéticos de uma estação de tratamento de água residual. As hipóteses abordadas neste trabalho mostram como é possível atingir este objetivo usando células microbianas de combustível. A composição orgânica desta água faz com que o seu potencial energético possa ser explorado, usando o metabolismo bacteriano para produzir energia e, simultaneamente, auxiliar na limpeza da água. Este documento está dividido em 5 capítulos. O posicionamento do tema ocorre no capítulo 1. O capítulo 2 observa os principais elementos da tecnologia das células microbianas de combustível, permitindo compreender o seu funcionamento e conhecer que variáveis afetam o seu funcionamento. No capítulo 3 são apresentadas as tipologias de abordagem à gestão energética para esta pilha bacteriológica, discutindo-se as vantagens e otimizações de cada sistema. O penúltimo capítulo corresponde à exploração de resultados experimentais e à validação de hipóteses, orientadas para a maior eficiência energética. Surgem assim recomendações que servirão para guiar os trabalhos futuros, discutidos no capítulo final. Este, o capítulo 5, conta ainda com a apresentação das principais conclusões e das tendências de pesquisa. O trabalho termina com um exemplo de aplicação que solidifica a validade e utilidade da aplicação desta tecnologia

A current-driven six-channel potentiostat for rapid performance characterization of microbial electrolysis cells

Knowledge of the performance of microbial electrolysis cells under a wide range of operating conditions is crucial to achieve high production efficiencies. Characterizing this performance in an experiment, however, is challenging due to either the long measurement times of steady-state procedures or the transient errors of dynamic procedures. Moreover, wide parallelization of the measurements is not feasible due to the high measurement equipment cost per channel. Hence, to speedup this characterization and to facilitate low-cost, yet widely parallel measurements, this paper presents a novel rapid polarization curve measurement procedure with a dynamic measurement resolution that runs on a custom six-channel potentiostat with a current-driven topology. As case study, the procedure is used to rapidly assess the impact of altering pH values on a microbial electrolysis cell that produces H-2. A $\times 2$ - $\times 12$ speedup could be obtained in comparison with the state-of-the-art, depending on the characterization resolution (16-128 levels). On top of this speedup, measurements can be parallelized up to $6\times$ on the presented, affordable-42-per-channel-potentiostat

Allometric scaling of microbial fuel cells and stacks: The lifeform case for scale-up

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. This case study reports for the first time on the comparison between allometric scaling of lifeforms and scale-up of microbial fuel cell entities; enlarging individual units in volume, footprint and electrode surface area but also multiplying a static size/footprint and electrode surface area to scale-up by stacking. A study published in 2010 by DeLong etal. showed for the first time that Kleiber's law does not apply uniformly to all lifeforms, and that in fact growth rate for prokaryotes is superlinear, for protists is linear and for metazoa is sublinear. The current study, which is utilising data from previous experiments, is showing for the first time that for individual MFC units, which are enlarged, growth rate/power is sublinear, whereas for stacks this is superlinear