A rare plant species may power our future cities.
For more than two decades, we have looked to Mother Nature for the answers to our most complex problems. But who would have thought that a simple plant could hold answers to our collective energy needs? The vast majority of the world holds energy security in high regard.
Are you ready for an energy-rich plant to power your city?
How nature has inspired humans for generations as time progresses
As humans, we have learnt a thing or two from the world around us.
The Kingfisher-inspired bullet train in Japan has revolutionized how high-speed trains work. Even something as simple to us as Velcro was inspired by nature when a scientist took his dog for a walk and noticed burdock seeds sticking to his dog’s fur.
The energy industry has benefited as well from studying nature and animals.
Whale fins have inspired new wind turbine designs, as the ocean-based mammals inspired turbine manufacturers to build their blades with “bumpy edges” that mimic tubercles on whale fins.
The search for new energy-generating processes has reached every corner of the planet
Our collective need for energy has led us to move far beyond the traditional oil and gas sector to search every nook and cranny of the world.
A team of scientists recently developed a new method to charge our phones that relies only on sound waves. This proves that there is an unknown world of energy potential that we have yet to discover.
Engineers in Iceland are drilling deep into the Earth’s crust to get at the “supercritical” steam produced by volcanic heat.
The mysterious thermosynthesis process to produce energy from heat has become the latest clean energy solution for the world to consider. On the opposite side of the energy spectrum, scientists in the Arctic region are experimenting with cryogenic energy storage.
The process involves using excess wind power to chill air until it becomes a liquid.
While these energy production methods are gaining momentum, a new study, “Discovery and Implications of a Nanoscale Rare Earth Mineral in a Hyperaccumulator Plant,” published in the American Chemical Society, has found a rare plant with energy crystals.
A plant to power the world of tomorrow is a real possibility
A research team has found that the fern plant known as Blechnum orientale, which has been classified as a rare earth element hyperaccumulator, can store high concentrations of naturally occurring metals in the soil beneath our feet.
Hyperaccumulation is the natural process that occurs in some plant species that absorb metals and store them at far higher levels than the soil around them.
The metal that the study refers to is nanoscale monazite.
These “living mines” are significant as they hold highly concentrated compositions of rare earth elements that are essential to the clean energy technologies that now dominate the energy market.
The energy-rich plants could produce energy that could be used to power our homes, refrigerators, or any other appliances.
The challenge now is how to extract these energy-rich crystals from the plant
The REEs referred to in the study are not a new find; we know that the Earth’s crust is filled with them.
But what has been a major challenge is how to extract them. The new study finds that the ferns in question have highly concentrated amounts of the energy crystals that would make the process of extracting the energy much, much easier.
Mining for energy to power the world often requires vast amounts of money and time.
But these ferns hold the energy needed in crystallized form and require no heat or pressure to produce the energy, as they essentially self-organize. While most of us turn to the solar power sector to power our homes, this new process may lean on nature to light up the world.
How comfortable would you feel about plant -based energy mining to power your city?