A Dutch company will showcase an innovative way of producing electricity from living plants at the World Green Energy Summit, which opens in Dubai tomorrow (April 16).

Plant-e CEO Marjolein Helder will present the invention for the first time internationally at WGES during “The youth & green innovation” plenary session on April 16.

Plant-e produces electricity with living plants via natural processes. The plant uses photosynthesis to
produce organic matter, part of which is excreted via the roots. Around the roots naturally occurring
bacteria break down the organic matter, meanwhile releasing electrons. Plant-e has developed a
technology to capture the electrons in an electrode-couple, thus producing electricity on-site,
without harvesting the plant.

Plant-e’s products work day and night and year-round. Currently, a first commercial system is being
sold. It’s a modular system containing plants and technology in a 50x50cm box. Systems of 100 sq m are now available and can, for example, power LED-lights on roundabouts, charge cell-phones, power WiFi-hotspots or be applied as green electricity roofs on flat roof-tops, she said.

Within 3-5 years a system for large-scale electricity production in natural wetlands will be launched, she said. A prototype for this system has been developed and will be tested on pilot-scale starting in the summer of 2014. This system will be suitable for any type of wetland, including salt-marshes and rice paddy fields.

Plant-e is a spin-out company from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Dr. Marjolein Helder
first did research into the technology before starting to work full-time at Plant-e to further develop
products based on the technology. - TradeArabia News Service