The rapid advancements in piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) have gained significant global scientific interest and stimulated intense innovation. This paper explores a cost-effective, general-purpose PEH system. A common gas lighter, repurposed as a piezoelectric spark generator (PSG), generates approximately 1kV with each stroke, producing air breakdown within less than 1 cm in open-circuit conditions. The circuit consists of four Schottky diodes and a 2.5V, 10F supercapacitor. The experiment demonstrates the setup's effectiveness by successfully powering a small red LED, which consumes around 8–10 mA, for approximately 400 ms without a rectifying circuit. However, when equipped with a Schottky rectifying circuit, the supercapacitor charged at a rate of 10 mV per stroke from each piezoelectric generator used in the experiment.
Another successor of my motivation to generate usable electricity from piezoelectric material and modern technology. Actually this is the first one I got success with on this topic. While working with such technology, it really help me to understand how the energy is generated, the different angles to take into considerations to design a power system and much more that couldn’t be possible without the effort of this experiment. Firstly, I am truely greatful to my guru Mr. Abedul Hadi sir, for inspiring me for this project without any second thought. Currently, he is serving as an Assistant Professor and Head(Acting) of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at University of Information Technology and Sciences.
As a student of engineering(EEE) my life was not boaring at all because I was busy with multidimentional experiment in the filed of science, particularly IOT, Firmware, Microcontrollers, Control systems, Power and Signals, which never stops or limits me to explore the horizon. At that particular time, I was learning about power generation, distribution, transmission and the most fun part was for me to learn about PLCC - Power Line Carrier Communication system. Maybe thats why I find the Line Trap device in a substration interesting.
I know there are countless people who think Free Energy is possible just because they have some sort of intuation of understanding of DC motor and LED circuit and how reverse rotation of a permanent magnet DC motor generates electricity to light up an LED momentarily.
Such people often loves to wrap an argument for generating free power from such mechanism withtout any practical knowledge regarding the facts and circumstances of power generation and usability. Which is not a good argument for a man of science like me. But I thought why not do something positive about it. So, I studies different power genration methods, techniques in the industry available today. And that is when power generation from piezoelectric materials caught my attention. After a little bit of research I knew this is the technology I want to work with. But wait, where is the interesting part? Well, to make the interesting I wanted to add something special which was to introduce a supercapacitor in the experiment. I prepared a project proposal and immedieately rushed to Mr. Abedul Hadi the next day. I remember I was an orientation program of the university and Mr. Hadi was sitting in the audience watching the stage show. I wanted to steal the moment and so I did. After explaining him the idea and showing my scratchbook - the diagrams and model generator - He immedieately said “Shantonu, I think this is a great experiment you are performing and I think it has a bright future ahead. You may proceed.”
That is what I needed. Actually it was more than enough to kick start my latent experiment to the fulls sail.