Open AccessGeneration of Electricity from Fruit and Vegetable Waste
Author(s) -
Er. Parinder Kaur*,
Er. Anjali Rathi,
Er. Anshul Dhawan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of recent technology and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2277-3878
DOI - 10.35940/ijrte.e5041.018520
Subject(s) - waste management , food waste , slurry , electricity , environmental science , biodegradable waste , pulp and paper industry , environmental engineering , engineering , electrical engineering
Roughly 1.3 million tons of food accounting to one-third of the annual food production meant for human consumption is wasted annually. Food wastage can be reduced to a great extent by proper post-harvest treatments, cold storage as well as improving the supply chain. However, food waste such as vegetable peels, meat carcasses and teabags is almost unavoidable and accounts for 19% of the total waste and can be used for energy generation by anaerobic digestion where microorganisms convert the waste material into biogas that can be utilized to produce electricity. Three set-up were made using E. Coli stains for the same- control set-up, set-up containing glucose to act as a substrate for E. Coli bacteria and a set-up containing KCl as it is an electrolyte and can help in transfer of charge. Set-up was made using air tight plastic containers connected with a salt bridge. Graphite rods were placed in each container and connected with wire. Slurry was poured in the container and connected to another container with water and air pump. The control MFC set-up produced the least amount of electricity followed by set-up containing KCl and most electricity production was found in set-up containing glucose. Thus, providing a substrate to the waste can help in production of electricity from waste thus giving a way to utilise the organic waste material in a judicious way.