Tackling global electricity shortage through human power: Technical opportunities from direct or indirect utilizations of the pervasive and green human energy

doi:10.1007/s11708-012-0200-3

Front. Energy

2012, Vol. 6

Issue (3) : 210-226 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-012-0200-3

FEATURE ARTICLE

Tackling global electricity shortage through human power: Technical opportunities from direct or indirect utilizations of the pervasive and green human energy

Dan DAI¹, Jing LIU^1,^2,^*(

)

1. Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bejing 100190, China
2. Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bejing 100190, China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100080, China

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Abstract

With the energy and environmental problems becoming increasingly serious, human power, as a pervasive, renewable, mobile and environment friendly energy, draws more and more attention over the world. In this paper, the most basic features of human power are presented. The currently available human power harvesting theories and devices are briefly reviewed and compared. Further, direct or indirect utilization of human power in daily life, especially transportation and home appliances, such as human-powered car, watercraft, aircraft, washing machine and television etc. are summarized. Considering that the total energy from an individual is rather limited, as previously focused by most of the former works, it is conceived in this paper that an important future for large scale use of human powers lies in the efficient conversion, collection and storage of such energy from discrete people and then use it later on as desired. With the huge amount of energy gathered, the application category of human power would be significantly expended. Starting from this point, three technical ways towards efficiently utilizing human power are sketched, which are termed as human-powered grid (HPG), human-powered charger (HPC) and human-powered storage (HPS), among which, HPG is capable of collecting the electric power produced by each individual at different regions and thus can supply unique and flexible power to the customers covered in the area, without relying on the conventional electricity grid. The HPC can then charge various kinds of electrical devices instantly by a human driven generator which converts human power into electricity. Finally, the HPS can store electricity in time for later use. In this way, even for the devices requiring electricity that is strong enough, the collected human power can also serve as its reliable energy source. Meanwhile, utilization of human power becomes rather convenient and timely which guarantees its practical value. It is expected that with further research and increasing applications, human power could partially relieve the current global electricity shortage and environmental issues via its pervasive contribution.

Keywords human energy harvesting human-powered transportation human-powered home appliances human-powered grid (HPG) human-powered charger (HPC) human-powered storage (HPS) biofuel

Corresponding Author(s): Jing LIU

About author:

Tongcan Cui and Yizhe Hou contributed equally to this work.

Issue Date: 05 September 2012

Cite this article:

Dan DAI,Jing LIU. Tackling global electricity shortage through human power: Technical opportunities from direct or indirect utilizations of the pervasive and green human energy[J]. Front. Energy, 2012, 6(3): 210-226.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-012-0200-3
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/Y2012/V6/I3/210

Fig.1 Typical applications of human power

Energy calculation	Ankle	Knee	Hip
Total energy $(J s t e p)$	33.44	18.2	18.96
Negative energy $(J s t e p)$	9.47	16.72	3.52
Percentage of negative energy/%	28.3	91.9	18.56

Tab.1 Energy calculation for the ankle, knee and hip by an 80-kg person at a normal walking speed

Fig.2 A generic model for inertial power generator

Fig.3 Structure and operation principle of PEG [27]

Fig.4 Schematic diagram of implantable microbattery

(a) Structure of the battery; (b) experimental prototype [28,29]

Tab.2 Output performance of existing human magnetoelectric generators

Fig.5 Schematic diagram of the piezoelectric generator

(a) No force; (b) compress; (c) pull

Fig.6 Structures of LMME

(a) Magnet induction; (b) liquid chamber [9]

Fig.7 Structure of the footwear-embedded microfluidic energy harvester [12,35]

Fig.8 Seiko thermic wristwatch [24]

Fig.9 Rendering of the Shweeb [38]

Fig.10 Structure of HumanCar [40]

Fig.11 Conceptual human-powered boats

(a) River Gym [45]; (b) solar and human-powered concept boat [46]

Tab.3 History of human-powered aircraft [48]

Fig.12 Yield of washing machine, television and refrigerator in China from 2001 to 2009

Fig.13 Structure of the typical bicycle generator [62]

Fig.14 Pedal-powered washing machine of MIT

Tab.4 Human-powered washing machine

Fig.15 Energy consumption of TVs in 2004-2009 in the world [72]

Fig.16 Structure of TV powered by a bicycle generator

Fig.17 Three potential applications of human power

Fig.18 Structure chart of HPG [78]

1—human power generator; 2—electricity input port; 3—input-current conditioning module; 4—electricity input path; 5—low-level energy storage devices; 6—secondary energy storage devices; 7—electricity output path; 8—output-current conditioning module; 9—electricity output port; 10—electric equipment; 11—high-level energy storage devices; 12—central control system; 13—information transmission; 14—electric power dispatching system

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[1]	Dan DAI, Jing LIU, Yixin ZHOU. Harvesting biomechanical energy in the walking by shoe based on liquid metal magnetohydrodynamics[J]. Front Energ, 2012, 6(2): 112-121.

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