Obtaining Sustainable Electrical Energy from Pepper Waste

Abstract

Currently, two significant problems involve the government, population, and environment: the accelerated increase in organic waste and the need to replace conventional energy with environmentally sustainable energy. The sustainable use of organic waste is being intensely investigated to generate energy plants that produce alternative sustainable electrical energy beneficial to the population at a low cost. The novelty of this research is given by the use of pepper waste as fuel in the generation of bioelectricity, giving added value to these types of waste, benefiting farmers and companies dedicated to the export and import of these fruits, because they will be able to generate their own electrical energy using their own waste at a lower cost. For this reason, this research uses pepper waste as fuel in single-chamber microbial fuel cells manufactured at a low cost as its primary objective. The maximum values of the electric current (5.118 ± 0.065 mA) and electric potential (1.018 ± 0.101 V) were shown on the fourteenth day, with an optimal operating pH of 7.141 ± 0.134 and electrical conductivity of 112.846 ± 4.888 mS/cm. Likewise, a reduction in the COD was observed from 1210.15 ± 0.89 mg/L to 190.36 ± 16.58 mg/L in the 35 days of monitoring and with a maximum ORP of 426.995 ± 8.615 mV, whose internal resistance was 33.541 ± 2.471 Ω. The peak power density was 154.142 ± 8.151 mW/cm2 at a current density of 4.834 A/cm2, and the Rossellomorea marisflavi strain was identified with 99.57% identity.