R&D company Plant-e uses plants to generate electricity. ETE played a key role in designing and improving the efficiency of this so-called Plant Microbial Fuel Cell. Now Plant-e is further developing the technology to boost yield and reduce costs.

A red and a black electrical wire stick from the soil of a small plant pot. Pim de Jager, researcher at Plant-e, connects the two and a small LED lights up. Electricity from plants, a green dream that has become reality! ‘Bacteria and plants live in symbiosys’, de Jager explains the principle. ‘The plant uses solar energy to synthesize organic compounds for growth. Part of these substances are released by the root system into the soil, and utilized as fuel by bacteria.

‘Metoprolol has just one stable phenyl ring, that can obviously be degraded by micro-organisms present’, the scientist concludes. ‘The deployment of bacteria to enhance micro-pollutant degradation should be tested and whenever effective implemented in waste water treatment systems.’ In this process electrons are formed, that can be harvested by an electrode to generate electricity.’

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