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US 12,724,002 B2Granted
Electrochemical soil reactor
AssigneeWashington State University
InventorsHaluk Beyenal, Abdelrhman Mohamed, Maren Friesen
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Abstract
A bioelectrochemical soil assessment method and system is disclosed, wherein electrical measurements provide distinct differences between healthy and unhealthy soils, and wherein the presence of microbes coupled to an electrode also indicates healthy soil but not for unhealthy soil. Moreover, a soil amendment solution addition stimulated current in both healthy and unhealthy soil, wherein the electrical current is utilized as a proxy for microbial metabolic activity to distinguish healthy and unhealthy soil.
Claims12
A soil health monitoring method, comprising:
- positioning a plurality of electrodes at below the surface of a soil at different depths and/or different locations;
- measuring an open circuit potential value of each of the plurality of electrodes;
- identifying an area of maximum microbial activity area in the soil based on the measured open circuit potential values and the position of each of the plurality of electrodes below the surface of the soil;
- positioning a first electrode and a second electrode within the identified indicated area of maximum microbial activity;
- and
- measuring an electrochemical behavior resulting from one or more signals received from the first electrode and the second electrode to provide a health assessment of the soil.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.