Energy harvesting from food waste by inoculation of vermicomposted organic matter into Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC)

This 4study proposed a novel energy harvesting from food waste by inoculation of vermicomposted organic matter into MFC in order to produce electricity while decomposing organic waste by catalytic activity of geobacter species which already live in the compost. We designed and implemented a prototype of vermicomposting MFC energy harvester and measured its output voltage for 4 weeks. The voltage-time profile and current-voltage (CV) characteristic showed a maximum open-circuit voltage of 0.75 volts and maximum power of 0.41mW. The proposed energy harvester can contribute to recycle of food waste as well as providing sustainable electricity. Further study will focus on its applications which are energy self-sustainable so that it may encourage more installation and utilization of the proposed food waste energy harvester.