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Generation of usable electric power from available random sound energy

Conference Paper · May 2013

DOI: 10.1109/ICIEV.2013.6572549

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 Generation of Usable Electric Power from Available
Random Sound Energy
G. R. Ahmed Jamal*, Hamidul Hassan, Amitav Das, Jannatul Ferdous, Sharmin A. Lisa
University of Asia Pacific
Dhaka, Bangladesh
*ahmed.eee@uap-bd.edu
Abstract— In this work, a relatively less explored source of green
energy is proposed. Random sound energy around us can be
treated as a source of electric power after their efficient
conversion using suitable transducer. An effective way of
producing usable electric power from available random sound
energy is presented here. Piezoelectric transducers are used for
conversion of sounds into electric energy. The produced electric
energy from multiple piezoelectric transducers are stored in
multiple supercapacitors which are then summed up and
amplified through adder and voltage multiplier circuits. The
resultant electric power was used to charge a rechargeable DC
battery so as to store this energy. A small 9 volt DC battery was
found to be fully recharged within half an hour from fully
discharged stage using medium sound source through the
proposed conversion circuit. In this way, random sound energy
from numerous sources around us can be stored as electric
energy which can be used later to deliver electric power to drive
compatible small loads. The proposed idea can give a new source
of green energy and can contribute in global search for
renewable energy.
Keywords- Green energy, sound, electrical power, piezoelectric
material.
I. INTRODUCTION
Scientists are desperately searching for renewable and
green sources of energy to produce electric power. Till now,
fuel is serving as the main source of electric power. Fuel
combustion produces heat which in turn produces electricity
through an electro-mechanical process. Minerals like coal,
gas, diesel and uranium are commonly used as fuels as per
fuel combustion chamber. These mineral sources are limited in
earth and hence these sources are decreasing day by day
because of using it extensively. So, searching is on for
renewable sources of electric power that can meet the demand
of future. Sunlight and air have already been proved as
potential sources for electric power and contributing in power
generation through solar cell and windmill [1-3]. These two
sources depend directly on nature and may not suit with
weather of all regions. A relatively ignored and less discussed
source is available sound energy around us in the form of
noises which can be considered as a source for electricity if it
can be effectively converted into electric power.
In simple words, sound is the vibration of any substance.
The substance can be air, water, wood, or any other material,
and the only place in which sound cannot travel is a vacuum.
When these substances vibrate, or rapidly move back and
forth, they produce sound. Sound can be sensed through
various types of sound sensors. Piezoelectric material is one of
the most effective sound sensors [4].
The word piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from
pressure. Piezoelectricity is the charge that accumulates in
certain solid materials (notably crystals and
certain ceramics) in response to applied mechanical stress.
The piezoelectric effect is understood as the linear
electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and the
electrical state in some crystalline materials with no inversion
symmetry. The piezoelectric effect is the process of internal
generation of electrical charge resulting from an applied
mechanical force [4].
The capacity of piezoelectric materials to receive any
vibration and to convert that into electric signal attracted many
researchers who tried to implement circuits and systems for
converting pressure and vibrations into electric power [5-11].
An idea was researched by DARPA in the United States in a
project called Energy Harvesting, which includes an attempt to
power battlefield equipment by piezoelectric generators
embedded in soldiers' boots [5, 6]. However, these energy
harvesting sources by association have an impact on the body.
DARPA's effort to harness 1–2 watts from continuous shoe
impact while walking were abandoned due to the
impracticality and the discomfort from the additional energy
expended by a person wearing the shoes. Another idea was to
lay down piezoelectric crystals under the keys of a mobile unit
and keyboards [7]. For the press of every key, the created
vibrations and pressures can be used for charging purpose.
Other energy harvesting ideas through piezoelectric materials
include harvesting the energy from human movements in train
stations or other public places [6, 8] by laying piezoelectric
materials under floor mats, carpets and tiles in those places. A
similar idea was used in some night clubs of Europe where
crystals were laid underneath the dance floor to generate
electricity by which they could power their strobes and stereos
[9]. Vibrations from industrial machinery or from the
machines in the gym can also be harvested by piezoelectric
materials to charge batteries for backup supplies or for low
power microprocessors and wireless radios [9-11]. All these
reports show the potential of piezoelectric materials in
producing usable electrical power. It can be noted that, all
these possible applications utilize the sensitivity of
piezoelectric materials to any kind of pressure or vibration.
 As sound is nothing but the vibrattions in air and
piezoelectric transducer is sensitive to any kind
k of vibrations,
piezoelectric materials is found to have usefful applications for
the production and detection of sound [4]. [ Detection of
pressure variations in the form of sound is the most common
sensor application used in piezoelectric microphones
m (sound
waves bend the piezoelectric material, creeating a changing
voltage) and piezoelectric pickups for acousttic-electric guitars.
Use of sound energy in production of electricity
e is not a
new concept. Recent advances in energy conversion have
shown a great hope in this direction. Reseearchers from Los
Alamos National Laboratory and Northrop Grumman Space (a) (b)
Technology, USA have built a compact gennerator that uses a
small version of a thermo acoustic sterling engine
e [12]. In that Figure 1. (a) Metal disk with attachedd piezoelectric disk as used in this work
(b) A small Buzzer used as sound sourcce for this work.
generator, movement of helium gas generaates sound waves
which drive a piston to move a coiled copperr wire. As the wire
Electrical double-layer capacitoor (EDLC) is a relatively new
moves through a magnetic field producedd by a permanent
technology [13, 14]. Superrcapacitors have the highest
magnet, it produces electricity. In their attem
mpt, electric power
capacitance values per unit volume
v and have the greatest
was not directly produced from sound, rather r sound was
energy density compared witth other capacitors. With their
artificially generated by gas movement. So, this process is not
high capacitance values, superrcapacitors are bridging the gap
a transform of naturally available or man madem sound energy
between capacitors and batteriies. Supercapacitors with up to
or noises around us into electricity.
100F of charge storage, are emerging as an alternative to
Production of electricity directly from m available sound batteries in applications wheere the importance of power
energy around us is a relatively new concept. Though noise is delivery trumps that of total energy storage. One important
undesirable in general but its generation iss indispensable in feature of supercapacitor is, thhey can be charged very quickly
many cases. “Observe silence” slogans nevver fit to crowded whereas discharge slowly becaause of their much larger value
places like bus stations, railway stations, airports or busy in farad than conventional caapacitors. This feature will be
traffic points in a city. Hence, if the availaable sound energy utilized in our proposed methodd for producing electric power
around us in the form of various noises can be converted into
electric power, it will be useful and can givve a new source of
green energy.
The objective of this paper is to preesent an effective
method for producing usable electric pow wer from available
sound energy around us in the form of noisses. At first, small
amount of electricity can be generated dirrectly from sound
energy using piezoelectric transducers. Thee way it works is
that the mechanical energy of sound is appplied directly to a
crystal (or possibly a ceramic) with strrong piezoelectric
characteristics, and the crystal will generate a small amount of
voltage in response to the application off that mechanical
energy (sound). The resultant electric energgy from a number
of crystals can be summed up and processeed further through
some circuits to produce usable electric poweer.
II. METHOD AND RESULTTS
A number of piezoelectric transducerrs collected from Figure 2. Full circuit set up for sound energy to electrical power conversion.
acoustic-electric guitars (as shown in Fig. 1(a) are used for
conversion of sounds into electric energy. As these types of
piezoelectric transducers are small enouggh, the produced
voltage across the transducer using medium range of sound is
also very small. In this experiment, a small buzzer
b was used as
sound source which was operated by a 6 Volt, 2 KHz
sinusoidal wave (as shown in Fig. 1(b). Thhe resultant buzzer
sound produces around 200 mV across the transducer.
t As this
generated voltage is in ac form and noisy in nature, so a 1
farad supercapacitor is used in parallel to the piezoelectric
transducers for both filtering and storing thee produced electric Figure 3. Charging a rechargeable 9 V Dc battery using produced electric
energy, as shown in Fig. 2. The supercapacitor, also known as power from sound at the output of Quaadrupler set up.
 Figure 4. Block diagram showing the full process of generating and storing electricl power from random sound energy sources.
from sound energy. Due to its quick charging characteristics,
supercapacitor can effectively store momentarily produced
electrical energy through piezoelectric material from available
sound energy. Due to its slow discharging characteristics, it
can hold this stored electric energy for a longer time than
usual capacitors, hence output from multiple supercapacitors
can be added easily.
In our proposed method, at first, sound energy generated
from buzzer was used to produce small electric energy at the
terminal of piezoelectric transducer. A 1 farad supercapacitor
of 5.5 volt is placed in parallel to the terminal of piezoelectric
transducer to store this small energy. A number of this
transducer-supercapacitor parallel set up was constructed and
their output voltages were added using a LM 324 Op Amp
adder circuit, as shown in Fig. 2. Measured output voltage for
20 transducers-supercapacitors parallel set up was found to be
around 4 volt which was solely the result from sound energy,
More transducers-supercapacitors parallel set up could be used
but in that case the added output will excced the highest
saturation voltage of LM 324 Op Amp, as defined by the
biasing voltage Vcc = 5 V that we applied in our experiment.
The output of the adder circuit was then fed to the input of a
voltage multiplier (here, Quadrupler) circuit in order to
increase the produced voltage level. The resultant voltage at
the output of the Quadrupler circuit was measured to be
around 12 volt which can now be used to charge a suitable
rechargeable DC battery, as shown in Fig. 3. Here, a small 9
volt DC rechargeable battery was used as a test case. It was
observed that the battery got fully recharged within half an
hour from fully discharged stage through the proposed
conversation circuit using only the buzzer sound. It was also
observed that the Quadrupler output voltage varies with the
frequency of the ac signal used to operate the buzzer. This is
not surprising as piezoelectric materials are frequency
sensitive and maintain a frequency range for their smooth
operation. The complete circuit set up is shown in Fig. 2. The
overall conversion process can be summerized in the block
diagram shown in Fig. 4. Higher output voltage can be
achieved at the output of adder by increasing the number of
transducers-supercapacitors parallel stages before adder circuit
if the biasing voltage of LM 324 Op Amp is increased
accordingly.
The purpose of using a diode in the direction of
Quadrupler to rechargeable battery in the circuit shown in Fig.
3 is to prevent the discharging of the battery when there is not
enough sound. In the absence of no sound or low level sound,
output of the Quadrupler circuit will be below 9 V and the
battery will try to discharge by flowing current in reverese
direction assuming the Quadrupler circuit as a load. The diode
is placed to stop this reverse flow of current from battery so
that it only take charge from the Quadrupler circuit and cannot
get discharged in the absence of sufficient sound.
The conversion circuit shown in Fig. 2 was also tested in
outdoor environment to measure its performance. Tested
sound sources were train whistle in railway station, sound
produced from a runnnig hydraulic pump and sound produced
from construction piling. These typical high sound sources
around us usually play no role except producing noises for us.
It has been observed that, battery can be charged from piling
sound at a distance of 5 inch from the machine beyond which
output of the Quadrupler drops below 9 volt, thus stopping the
charging of battery. In case of hydraulic pump, battery can
take charge if the circuit is placed within 10 inch from the
machine. The best performance was observed in rail station
where battery can take charge from sound energy of whistle of
the train, even if the circuit is kept at 100 inch distant from the
train. Table I shows the recorded data of Quadrupler output
voltages for these three different sound sources measured at
various distances ranging from 2 inch to 100 inch from the
sound sources. The result says that the proposed set up can be
placed in any such places within the prescribed distances from
the sound source. The set up will produce usable amount of
electrical power that can charge a small rechargeable battery
to operate any small battery driven apparatus.
 TABLE I. QUADRUPLER OUTPUT VOLTAGES AT VARIOUS recharged within half an hour from fully discharged stage
DISTANCES FROM THREE DIFFERENT SOUND SOURCES
using medium sound source through the proposed
Distance from Output Voltages from three different conversation circuit. The conversion circuit was tested in
Sound Source sound sources (Volt) outdoor with various sound sources like train whistle in
(inch) Construction Hydraulic Train railway station, sound produced from a running hydraulic
piling pump whistle
2 11.39 11.84 For safety pump and sound produced from construction piling. In all
3 11.14 11.79 reason, it cases, it was found that battery can take charge from these
4 10.70 11.74 was not sound sources through the proposed conversion circuit from a
5 10.50 11.56 possible to reasonable distance from the source. This distance varies
6 9.80 11.44 go very depending on the nature and intensity of the tested sound
8 9.08 10.34 near to the
train and
sources. Using the proposed method, random sound energy
10 8.70 10.21 from numerous sources around us can be stored as electric
12 8.44 9.98 hence data
14 7.80 9.73 for train energy which can be used later to deliver electric power to
16 7.50 9.56
whistle are drive compatible small apparatus. The proposed method opens
provided the door of a relatively less explored source of green energy. It
18 7.20 9.32
only for
20 7.04 9.10 higher
can give a new source of green energy and can contribute in
24 6.80 8.76 distances. global search for renewable energy.
28 6.45 8.52
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