Kathmandu. A team of Chinese scientists has developed a cutting-edge device that can generate clean electricity from the friction between vehicle tires and the road.
The device is called a ‘roadbed tribological energy harvester’ and it attempts to harness a new and previously untapped source of energy harvesting.
A roadbed tribological energy harvester is a technology that harvests energy generated from the friction between vehicle tires and the road and converts it into electricity. The device uses a triboelectric nanogenerator system, which collects and uses electricity generated by friction.
It can generate 0.3 terawatts of energy annually from the interaction between vehicle tires and the road, which is a large-scale energy source. This type of energy harvesting aims to support smart transportation and road management systems.
Almost 85 percent of energy is lost through friction and heat from cars, and the interaction between tires and the road offers an annual renewable energy potential of 0.3 terawatts worldwide, equivalent to the annual output of 30 dams in China’s Three Gorges Project.
Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Nano Energy and Nano Systems under the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology have developed a device that can harvest energy on the basis of roads. This device can generate a maximum power of 16.4 milliwatts from the impact of a single tire and has an energy conversion efficiency of 11.7 percent.
The device uses a triboelectric nanogenerator array, which can operate stably at temperatures ranging from 40 to 60 degrees Celsius and at various humidity levels.
In addition, its cost is only 71.3 US dollars per square meter, making it very cost-effective for implementation in road networks around the world. This device, when used on a 50-meter stretch of road, can meet the power requirements of traffic lights, cameras, and other facilities along one kilometer of road.
This innovation is believed to open up new avenues for the integration of vehicles and roads, vehicles and structures, and other systems in the future, which will help in the construction of smart transportation systems.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्