BACKGROUND An optimal valorization of plant biomasses to produce biofuels requires a good knowledge of the available contents and molecular composition of the main chemical components, which changes with the harvesting date. Therefore, we assessed the influence of harvesting date on the chemical characteristics of various energy crops in the context of their conversion to biofuels. RESULTS We...

In the present paper, electrical energy harvesting from random vibrations of an Euler-Bernoulli nano-beam with two piezoelectric layers is investigated. The beam is composed of an aluminum layer together with two piezoelectric ceramic layers (PZT 5A) serving as energy harvesting sensors. In the proposed method, the equations governing the bimorph nano-beam will be analytically derived using cla...

This paper reviews the development of energy harvesting for low-power embedded structural health monitoring (SHM) sensing systems. A statistical pattern recognition paradigm for SHM is first presented and the concept of energy harvesting for embedded sensing systems is addressed with respect to the data acquisition portion of this paradigm. Next, various existing and emerging sensing modalities...

There has been a growing interest in using energy harvesting techniques for powering wireless sensor networks. The reason for utilizing this technology can be explained by the sensors limited amount of operation time which results from the finite capacity of batteries and the need for having a stable power supply in some applications. Energy can be harvested from the sun, wind, vibration, heat,...

This paper presents a self-powered piezoelectric energy harvesting circuit using frequency conversion. A vibration energy harvesting principle is introduced. Due to a capacitive characteristic of the piezoelectric vibration transducer, an energy harvesting circuit is proposed for matching the capacitive impedance. The energy harvesting circuit consists of a matching circuit with up-conversion, ...

The near-unity efficiency of energy transfer in photosynthesis makes photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes a promising avenue for developing new renewable energy technologies. Knowledge of the energy landscape of these complexes is essential in understanding their function, but its experimental determination has proven elusive. Here, the observation of quantum coherence using two-dimensiona...

A multiple-input single-output cognitive radio downlink network is studied with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. In this network, a secondary user coexists with multiple primary users and multiple energy harvesting receivers. In order to guarantee secure communication and energy harvesting, the problem of robust secure artificial noiseaided beamforming and power splitting d...

In the near future, billions of wireless devices are expected to be operational. To enable the required machine to machine communications, two major problems must be addressed. How to obtain the required spectrum efficiency, and how to deliver the required power to these devices. The most promising answers to these questions are cognitive radio and energy harvesting, respectively. Energy harves...

Wireless power transfer via radio-frequency (RF) radiation is regarded as a potential solution to energize energy-constrained users, who are deployed close to the base stations (near-by users). However, energy transfer requires much more transmit power than normal information transfer, which makes it very challenging to provide the quality of service in terms of throughput for all near-by users...