New Fuel Source: Lemon Waste in MFCs-SC for the Generation of Bioelectricity

Abstract

Waste originating from the agricultural industry has become a major global problem due to its exponential growth and the lack of adequate policies for its collection. Due to this, this research provides a novel solution for using lemon waste from the agro-industrial industry as fuel in single-chamber microbial fuel cells. The cells used showed maximum values of electric current and voltage 10.126 ± 0.093 mA and 0.816 ± 0.017 V, respectively; these values were obtained when the cells operated at pH 3 ± 0.12 and with an electrical conductivity of the substrate of 100.362 ± 7.810 mS. / cm, all this on the eighth day. Microbial fuel cells showed an internal resistance of 86.936 ± 14.505 Ω and a maximum power density of 384.365 ± 43.142 mW/cm2 for a current density of 5.266 A/cm2. Finally, the schematization of the light generation process through the cells was carried out, for which all the cells were placed in series, managing to generate 2.90 V, enough to make an LED (red) work.