The Hindu : Front Page : Generating power from parthenium

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005

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Generating power from parthenium

K. Jeshi

Coimbatore: Termed the most notorious plant, parthenium, the common weed, has inspired people to develop a power project. The sap extracted from its leaves, when connected with zinc and copper rods, is found to generate electricity.

"The weed is generally associated with `photophobic' skin allergies that cause an itching sensation when exposed to sunlight. Chloride is a good conductor of electricity and the possibility of its presence in parthenium formed the basis of our experiment," says S. Arul Mano, chemistry teacher at Brindavan Vidhyalaya School in Kavundampalayam, who has developed the project along with students S. Rajavarman (class XI), K. Devarajan (class XII) and J. Jeebal Gnanadhas, biology teacher, for a district level science exhibition. This has widened the scope for exploring the utility value of the problematic weed.

To kick-start the process, the samples will be sent to the Central Electrochemical Research Institute in Karaikudi to confirm the presence of chloride elements, organic and inorganic chlorocompounds.

"In the case of presence of chloride compounds, other chloride components such as common salt (Sodium Chloride) that will improve `ionic mobility' during conducting electricity for better power generation, can be mixed with the solution. To increase the chlorine content, the weed can be grown on industrial wastes that contain high amount of chlorofluoro carbons," Mr. Arul Mano adds. The sap extract, when mixed with inactive material such as glycerine, could also find use as dry battery cells.

"It's a new idea to look at the utility aspects of the weed that ranks seventh in the list of world's worst weeds.

Quantity of weed available and the quantity of unit mass required for research have to be explored," says C. Chinnasamy, Professor of Agronomy and specialist in weed science at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.

The students said that when the sap extracts of neem leaves, hibiscus and cactus was experimented, the electricity generated was less than 0.2 volts.

"Extracts from a single parthenium plant produced close to one volt. When the procedure was repeated with serial connection with three pairs of zinc and copper rods and extracts from three plants it was close to 3.5 volts," Mr. Devarajan says.

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