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Tapping Trees for Electricity?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the dc-tree dept.

dr_agonfly writes "Despite many skeptics, a Massachusetts company is getting investor interest in developing a process to tap electric power from trees. MagCap is looking to boost the current power from just under 2 volts to a more useful 12 volts with investor funding." From the article: "Jim Manwell, director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Renewable Energy Resource Laboratory, questioned the potential of MagCap's plans. 'I'm wildly skeptical,' he said. 'I would need to see proof before I believed it. It strikes me as pretty questionable for a number of reasons.'"

6 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Confusing terms by Arctic+Fox · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "the current power from just under 2 volts to a more useful 12 volts"

    How about something more useful? Like wattage?

  2. Don't invest, this is bollocks. by JackDW · · Score: 5, Insightful

    MagCap is looking to boost the current power from just under 2 volts to a more useful 12 volts
    Neither current nor power is measured in volts. If they can't get that right...

    --
    You're an immobile computer, remember?
  3. The lemon battery experiment by retro128 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It doesn't sound too different from the old lemon battery experiment. Sure, he might be able to generate voltage, but the question is...Where are the AMPS? If he has 12V at .005 milliamps, this tree electricity won't be useful to anyone. I hope not too many investors are buying this guy's line...

    --
    -R
  4. Re:Long way to go yet... by Rorschach1 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The fact that they're equating voltage with power should be a big clue that something's not right. It's like that comment in the Matrix about a human being generating as much power as a 100-volt battery. Without knowing current, it really tells you nothing. I can produce thousands of volts from a 3-volt battery with a fairly simple circuit. Will that create more power? Not at all - it's less, because of the losses in the circuit.

    Nothing to see here...

  5. Re:Long way to go yet... by shawb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh, the energy comes from somewhere indeed. There is an aluminum spike and a copper spike inserted into a tree. A tree has water with several dissolved compounds (including acids and salts) flowing through it. The tree's sap acts as an electrolyte, while the spikes are the anode and cathode in a simple aluminum/copper battery, similar to this gradeschool science experiemnt. The spikes will be consumed in the reaction, thus the tree is not generating any power at all. The fluctiations in voltage would be related to a changing internal resistance within the tree. Considering the amount of energy it takes to make aluminum, this fits under the "nothing to see here" category.

    --
    I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
  6. Re:Long way to go yet... by shawb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh yeah, and considering the electric potential of reducing copper is .34v, while the electric potential of oxidizing aluminum is -1.66v this working out to .34 - (-1.66) = 2volts, it seems kinda suspicious that the tree "generates" up to two volts of electricity.

    --
    I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman