Use of Watermelon Waste As a Fuel Source for Bioelectricity Generation

Abstract

Organic waste, such as fruit, is becoming one of the major environmental problems of this new era, due to the exponential growth of agro-industrial companies dedicated to the sale of various fruits, which generate a large amount of waste by not meeting the conditions quality. One of the most consumed fruits in this season of the year, are watermelons; of which only the pulp and seeds and peel are not thrown away in places that are not conducive to their use. Due to this, this research has as its main objective the use of watermelon waste as fuel for the generation of bioelectricity through microbial fuel cells manufactured at low cost on a laboratory scale (100 mL MFCs). It was possible to generate voltage and electrical current peaks of 0.983 ± 0.059 V and 4.575 ± 0.647 mA, which operated at a pH of 5.84 ± 0.27 on the twelfth day of monitoring, with an electrical conductivity of the substrate of 164.87 ± 0.65 mS/cm. The internal resistance shown was 36.748 ± 2.747 Ω, which was calculated using Ohm’s Law, while the maximum power density was 754 mW/m2 at a current density of 4.51 mA/cm2. Finally, the three manufactured microbial fuel cells were connected in series, managing to light an LED light for 18 days, thus demonstrating the power of watermelon waste to be used as fuel for the generation of bioelectricity.