Impact of Dragon Fruit Waste in Microbial Fuel Cells to Generate Friendly Electric Energy

Rojas Flores Segundo, Santiago M. Benites, Magaly De La Cruz-Noriega, Juan Vives-Garnique, Nélida Milly Otiniano, Walter Rojas-Villacorta, Moisés Gallozzo-Cardenas, Daniel Delfín-Narciso, Félix Díaz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Pollution generated by the misuse of large amounts of fruit and vegetable waste has become a major environmental and social problem for developing countries due to the absence of specialized collection centers for this type of waste. This research aims to generate electricity in an eco-friendly way using red dragon fruit (pitahaya) waste as the fuel in single-chamber microbial fuel cells on a laboratory scale using zinc and copper electrodes. It was possible to generate voltage and current peaks of 0.46 ± 0.03 V and 2.86 ± 0.07 mA, respectively, with an optimum operating pH of 4.22 ± 0.09 and an electrical conductivity of 175.86 ± 4.72 mS/cm at 8 °Brix until the tenth day of monitoring. An internal resistance of 75.58 ± 5.89 Ω was also calculated with a maximum power density of 304.33 ± 16.51 mW/cm2 at a current density of 5.06 A/cm2, while the FTIR spectra showed a decrease in the initial compounds and endings, especially at the 3331 cm−1 peaks of the O–H bonds. Finally, the yeast-like fungus Geotrichum candidum was molecularly identified (99.59%). This research will provide great opportunities for the generation of renewable energy using biomass as fuel through electronic devices with great potential to generate electricity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7316
JournalSustainability (Switzerland)
Volume15
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • bioelectricity
  • dragon fruit
  • fruit waste
  • generation
  • microbial fuel cells

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