Research on field application of road piezoelectric harvester based on recycled piezoelectric ceramics

Road piezoelectric energy harvesting technology has been widely studied and applied. However, after long-term use, the piezoelectric ceramics inside the harvester will be broken, which seriously affects the use of the piezoelectric system. A reliable recycling process can be adopted to reuse the transducer. Therefore, this study focuses on the feasibility of field application of road piezoelectric energy harvester after recycling. The loading test of road piezoelectric energy harvester based on recycled ceramics was carried out to explore the influence of different recycling conditions on the output characteristics of the piezoelectric harvester. The experimental results show that the sintering temperature should be increased slightly during the recycling process, and the optimal window temperature is 1285 °C. The electrical output performance of the recycled ceramics prepared at the sintering temperature is stable. The electrical response of the piezoelectric harvester based on the recycled ceramics at different vehicle speeds is tested by field experiments. Finally, the economy of the recycling technology is discussed. The results show that the comprehensive cost of recycling technology in road piezoelectric industrialization is reduced by 12.11%. The recycling technology of piezoelectric harvester can provide a new idea of technology application for the back-end operation and maintenance of road piezoelectric system, solve the problems of electronic waste treatment while reducing the comprehensive cost, and produce inestimable social and economic benefits in the field of environmental protection.