Impact of Dragon Fruit Waste in Microbial Fuel Cells to Generate Friendly Electric Energy

Pollution generated by the misuse of large amounts of fruit and vegetable waste has become a major environmental and social problem for developing countries due to the absence of specialized collection centers for this type of waste. This research aims to generate electricity in an eco-friendly way using red dragon fruit (pitahaya) waste as the fuel in single-chamber microbial fuel cells on a laboratory scale using zinc and copper electrodes. It was possible to generate voltage and current peaks of 0.46 +/- 0.03 V and 2.86 +/- 0.07 mA, respectively, with an optimum operating pH of 4.22 +/- 0.09 and an electrical conductivity of 175.86 +/- 4.72 mS/cm at 8 degrees Brix until the tenth day of monitoring. An internal resistance of 75.58 +/- 5.89 ? was also calculated with a maximum power density of 304.33 +/- 16.51 mW/cm(2) at a current density of 5.06 A/cm(2), while the FTIR spectra showed a decrease in the initial compounds and endings, especially at the 3331 cm(-1) peaks of the O-H bonds. Finally, the yeast-like fungus Geotrichum candidum was molecularly identified (99.59%). This research will provide great opportunities for the generation of renewable energy using biomass as fuel through electronic devices with great potential to generate electricity.