Exploring IIoT and Energy Harvesting Boundaries

In this paper it is presented a new wireless sensing network architecture to improve the energy management of battery-less Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices powered by heat. These IIoT devices will help huge energy demanding industries (especially chemical, petrochemical, oil refineries, etc.) to become more environmentally friendly in their digitalization process towards the industry 4.0. Mixing energy harvesting + IoT is the best fusion technology to get benefit of the industrial waste heat to create battery-less and free of maintenance IoT devices. This is thanks to the suppression of the lithium battery that is explosive and cannot be installed in ATEX/EX environments. Moreover, it reduces the battery replacement decreasing dramatically their maintenance cost and the impact to the environment. In these IoT networks the major challenge is how to manage the few energies stored in their super-capacitors and how to maximize the overall coverage using mesh networks. AEInnova - Alternative Energy Innovations is a spin-off of the Department of Microelectronics and Electronic Systems of the Autonomous University of Barcelona focused in the industrial waste heat revalorization to transform the industry 4.0 into a more environmentally friendly and cost effective.