Tangerine waste and pH variation to improve bioelectricity generation in microbial fuel cells

Abstract

Fruit yields have increased in recent years due to the increase in population and the lack of organization in the harvesting sector, causing a series of environmental problems for society. Based on this, this investigation leads to knowing a new form of generating bioelectricity through waste of mandarin in microbial fuel cells at the laboratory scale, varying the pH (3, Target, 7 and 9) of the substrate used (waste of mandarin). If I observe that the pH-3 cell generates the highest values of electrical current (8.497 mA), voltage (1.203 V) and electrical conductivity (164 mS/cm), and the pH-9 cell shows the values lower (0.408 V, 2.76 mA and 47.8 mS/cm). It should be noted that the internal resistance values increase with the increase in the pH values of the cells, being the pH cell 3 and 9, the lowest (24.365 ± 1.274 Ω) and highest (134.788 ± 15.492 Ω) recorded. Likewise, the values of the power densities were calculated, the pH-3 range being the highest recorded value, being 507.888 ± 16.184 mW/cm2 at a current density of 5,786 A/cm2. This investigation generates an opportunity to reduce gas emissions for businesses and farmers dedicated to the export and import of this fruit, due to the fact that in the near future they will be able to use their own designs as fuel for the generation of electricity.