A New Method for Sensing Soil Water Content in Green Roofs Using Plant Microbial Fuel Cells

Sensors

Carlos A. Bonilla¹  Natalia F. Tapia¹  Ignacio T. Vargas¹  Claudia Rojas² 

[1] Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 7820436, Chile;Instituto de Ciencias Agronómicas, Universidad de O’Higgins, Rancagua 2840856, Chile;

关键词: biosensor;    green roof;    microbial fuel cells;    Sedum;    soil water content;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s18010071

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Green roofs have many benefits, but in countries with semiarid climates the amount of water needed for irrigation is a limiting factor for their maintenance. The use of drought-tolerant plants such as Sedum species, reduces the water requirements in the dry season, but, even so, in semiarid environments these can reach up to 60 L m−2 per day. Continuous substrate/soil water content monitoring would facilitate the efficient use of this critical resource. In this context, the use of plant microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) emerges as a suitable and more sustainable alternative for monitoring water content in green roofs in semiarid climates. In this study, bench and pilot-scale experiments using seven Sedum species showed a positive relationship between current generation and water content in the substrate. PMFC reactors with higher water content (around 27% vs. 17.5% v/v) showed larger power density (114.6 and 82.3 μW m−2 vs. 32.5 μW m−2). Moreover, a correlation coefficient of 0.95 (±0.01) between current density and water content was observed. The results of this research represent the first effort of using PMFCs as low-cost water content biosensors for green roofs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown