Bio Moss - has been developed to generate electricity through the use of Bio-photovoltaic (Plants) process. Bio-Moss takes advantage of the properties of moss to create a system that could potentially produce 100% green electricity in a close to sustainable manner.
After researching varies potential areas for development i decided to focus on Cape Town’s Skyline. Reason being buildings account for about 16% of the City’s electricity consumption. Thus making administrative buildings more energy efficient would reduce overall electrical costs of buildings and also city. Various design solutions were suggested and finally one with most potential was developed into a viable idea/product after researching various regulations to see whether it would be possible. Bio Moss is to be fitted or build on the side of buildings.
The main aim of Bio Moss is to generate enough electricity to take care of unnoticed “Vampire Products” used in offices. These include Wi-Fi Routers, Printers, lighting, chargers etc. while as an added feature a balcony incorporated to add a social aspect to the design.
How Does It Work
Bio-photovoltaic or BPV are biological solar cell systems that generate electricity from the photosynthetic activity of living organism (plants). A biological solar cell is any type of plant, moss or algae that has the ability to photosynthesise.
1 Rain water is captured and stored.
2 An Adruino Moist-sensor is used to make sure temperature and humidity stays constant.
3 This will also be used to determine when Moss needs to be misted with implemented Atomiser.
4 The Bio-photovoltaic process then takes place.
5 Electrons are then captured and stored in a battery system.
6 Finally it is used for various electrical devices.
Anode/Cathode:
The most important element of the entire system is the way in which electrons are captured. In the Bio-photovoltaic process the Anode and Cathode used is imperative to the success of the entire process. Therefore in depth research was done into which materials, process and methods could be used to optimise the process.The “bio-electrical” system decided on consists of five components namely anodic biological material, anode, cathode, cathodic catalyst and hydrogel.
· The Anodic biological material in this case is the moss used that gives of electrons.
· The Anode previously agreed upon is mixture of (Reduced Graphite Oxide) RGO carbon and hydrogel that attracts electrons.
· The hydrogel absorbs moisture/water and helps to keep PH level neutral as well as moisture needed constant.
· Most importantly these do not harm or have an effect on the plants metabolism.
· The cathodic catalyst takes the form of salt crystals that help protons released by moss to reach Cathode.
Electrical Production might seem minimal but only 1.1% of energy can be captured at this moment of time. This project was future based to be implemented in 5-10 years’ time. This means electrical production of the entire system will increase exponentially.
This Concept is very much still in the early stages of development. But will hopefully open the eyes of future designs to the potential of Bio-photovoltaics.
