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Energies
Special Issues
Energy Harvesting State of the Art and Challenges
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Energy Harvesting State of the Art and Challenges

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "D: Energy Storage and Application".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 10090

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jerry Luo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Lecturer in Energy Storage and Harvesting, Centre for Renewable Energy Systems, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
Interests: energy harvesting; renewable energy; sensors; manufacturing of functional materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Patrick Luk

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK
Interests: electric power machines; power systems & turbines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Energy harvesting is a process that captures small amounts of energy that would otherwise be lost as heat, light, sound, vibration or movement. It has been an important research topic in the past 20 years and is seen as a solution to the challenges that Internet of Things (IoT) devices (e.g., sensors, communications) face in power supply, which render many IoT applications impractical due to battery size, battery replacement, and recharging. Research on energy-harvesting technologies to meet the power demand of IoT devices is driven by the growing demand for self-sustainable systems that require minimum or no maintenance, implementation of the IoT in automation, and adoption of wireless sensor networks in various applications.

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit manuscripts to this Special Issue covering all areas of energy harvesting research, including materials, structures, device design, power management, applications, etc. Review papers and research papers are both welcome. The aim of this issue is to provide readers with the current state-of-the-art developments in energy harvesting and their challenges, inspiring further research in advancing this exciting and important research topic.

Dr. Jerry Luo
Prof. Dr. Patrick Luk
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • energy harvesting
  • state of the art
  • materials
  • structure
  • power management
  • application

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 4242 KiB  
Article
A Physics-Based Modelling and Control of Greenhouse System Air Temperature Aided by IoT Technology
by Beatrice Faniyi and Zhenhua Luo
Energies 2023, 16(6), 2708; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16062708 - 14 Mar 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1825
Abstract
The need to reduce energy consumption in greenhouse production has grown. Thermal heating demand alone accounts for 80% of conventional greenhouse energy consumption; this significantly reduces production profit. Since microclimate affects crop metabolic processes and output, it is essential to monitor and control [...] Read more.
The need to reduce energy consumption in greenhouse production has grown. Thermal heating demand alone accounts for 80% of conventional greenhouse energy consumption; this significantly reduces production profit. Since microclimate affects crop metabolic processes and output, it is essential to monitor and control it to achieve both quantity and quality production with minimum energy consumption for maximum profit. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an evolving technology for monitoring and controlling environments that have recently been adopted to boost greenhouse efficiency in many applications by integrating hardware and software solutions; therefore, its adoption is thus critical in enabling greenhouse energy consumption minimisation. The first objective of this study is to improve and validate a greenhouse dynamic air temperature model required to simulate or predict indoor temperature. To achieve the first objective, therefore, an existing model was enhanced and a closed loop test experimental data from the IoT cloud-based control system platform deployed in the prototype greenhouse built in Cranfield University was used to validate the model using an optimisation-based model fitting approach. The second goal is to control the greenhouse air temperature in simulation using relatively simple PI and on-off control strategies to maintain the grower’s desired setpoint irrespective of the inevitable disturbances and to verify the potential of the controllers in minimising the total energy input to the greenhouse. For the second objective, the simulation results showed that the two controllers maintained the desired setpoint; however, the on-off strategy retained a sustainable oscillation, and the tuned PI effectively maintained the desired temperature, although the average energy used by the controllers is the same. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting State of the Art and Challenges)
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18 pages, 4751 KiB  
Article
The Quest for Renewable Energy—Effects of Different Asphalt Mixes and Laboratory Loading on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters
by Lubinda F. Walubita, Abu N. M. Faruk, Jerome Helffrich, Samer Dessouky, Luckson Kamisa, Hossein Roshani and Arturo Montoya
Energies 2023, 16(1), 157; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010157 - 23 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2145
Abstract
In furtherance of the quest for green renewable and sustainable energy, an effort was made in this laboratory study to generate and harvest electric power from hot-mix asphalt (HMA); a viscoelastic material that is widely used for road construction. The underlying hypothesis is [...] Read more.
In furtherance of the quest for green renewable and sustainable energy, an effort was made in this laboratory study to generate and harvest electric power from hot-mix asphalt (HMA); a viscoelastic material that is widely used for road construction. The underlying hypothesis is that the mechanical vibrations and strain energy induced by vehicle loading on the road (pavement) can be harnessed and converted into usable electric power by embedding piezoelectric sensors within the HMA layers of the pavement structure. To investigate the effects of HMA mix type on the generated energy, four commonly used Texas mix types, namely Type B (coarse-graded), Type C (dense-graded), Type D (dense-to-fine graded), and Type F (fine-graded), with up to seven different HMA mix-design volumetric characteristics were comparatively evaluated in the laboratory. In the study, the effects of loading, namely load magnitude and loading frequency, were investigated by simulating the traffic loading in the laboratory through comparative testing with the Hamburg wheel-tracking tester (HWTT) and the universal testing machine (UTM), respectively, at different temperature conditions. A prototype highway sensing and energy conversion (HiSEC) module with piezoelectric sensors was utilized for converting the applied stress on the HMA into harvestable electric energy during HWTT and UTM laboratory testing, respectively. The generated electric current, voltage, and power were measured and quantified using a multipurpose power meter. Overall, the study demonstrated that there is promising potential to harvest energy from HMA when subjected to transient loading under different temperature conditions. However, further refinement of the HiSEC module and piezoelectric sensors is still warranted to optimize the power generation and harvesting capacity, both in terms of efficiency and power output. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting State of the Art and Challenges)
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14 pages, 6904 KiB  
Article
Voltage Improvement of a Swing-Magnet-Type Generator for Harvesting Bicycle Vibrations
by Mitsuhide Sato, Takuto Takemura and Tsutomu Mizuno
Energies 2022, 15(13), 4630; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15134630 - 24 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1663
Abstract
This paper proposes a swing-magnet-type generator that utilizes environment vibration for energy harvesting applications. This device consisted of a liquid, a swing magnet with a float, and a coil, and it was expected to generate electricity using the minute vibration of a bicycle. [...] Read more.
This paper proposes a swing-magnet-type generator that utilizes environment vibration for energy harvesting applications. This device consisted of a liquid, a swing magnet with a float, and a coil, and it was expected to generate electricity using the minute vibration of a bicycle. The vibration of the wide frequency band of the bicycle was converted into a vibration of a low-frequency mover. The yoke size of the permanent magnet affected the linkage flux and swing characteristics. Therefore, we verified the effect of the mover characteristics on the swing moment by structural simulations and vibration experiments using a linear motor. The yoke size changed the torque, which affected the resonant frequency of the swing. The magnetic-field analysis revealed the effect on the flux linkage in the yoke. The output voltage of the generator in the bicycle was 2.1 V, which could power a light-emitting diode. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting State of the Art and Challenges)
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Review

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37 pages, 30245 KiB  
Review
New Wearable Technologies and Devices to Efficiently Scavenge Energy from the Human Body: State of the Art and Future Trends
by Roberto De Fazio, Roberta Proto, Carolina Del-Valle-Soto, Ramiro Velázquez and Paolo Visconti
Energies 2022, 15(18), 6639; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15186639 - 11 Sep 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3550
Abstract
Wearable technology represents a new technological paradigm for promoting physical activity, enabling monitoring of performances and athletic gestures. In addition, they can be employed for remote health monitoring applications, allowing continuous acquisition of users’ vital signs directly at home, emergency alerting, and computer-assisted [...] Read more.
Wearable technology represents a new technological paradigm for promoting physical activity, enabling monitoring of performances and athletic gestures. In addition, they can be employed for remote health monitoring applications, allowing continuous acquisition of users’ vital signs directly at home, emergency alerting, and computer-assisted rehabilitation. Commonly, these devices depend on batteries which are not the better option since researchers aim for dispositive who need minimal human intervention. Energy harvesting devices can be useful to extract energy from the human body, especially by integrating them into the garments, giving health monitoring devices enough energy for their independent operation. This review work focuses on the main new wearable technologies and devices to scavenge energy from the human body. First, the most suitable energy sources exploitable for wearable applications are investigated. Afterward, an overview of the main harvesting technologies (piezoelectric, triboelectric, thermoelectric, solar fabrics, and hybrid solution) is presented. In detail, we focused on flexible and thin textiles with energy harvesting capability, allowing easy integration into clothes fabric. Furthermore, comparative analyses of each harvesting technology are proposed, providing useful insights related to the best technologies for developing future self-sustainable wearable devices. Finally, a comparison between our review work and similar ones is introduced, highlighting its strengths in completeness and specificity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting State of the Art and Challenges)
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