Summer is the peak season for composting food waste, generating electricity in large-scale operations by burning the biogas it produces.
But scientists around the world are working on new ways to turn broken food into energy outside the garbage dump, and they find that some foods are better --
This job is more suitable than others.
This is important because figuring out which foods can be effectively converted into fuel makes it easier to reuse where waste starts: in fields and supermarkets.
Each year, more than half of the fruits and vegetables produced in North America are thrown into the garbage, and a full 20% of the produce cannot even leave the farm.
For example, the beloved tomato.
In South Florida, most of the winter tomato crops on the east coast of the United States are planted there, and the tomato fields produce 396,000 tons of food waste due to the fact that the fruit is not suitable for sale.
The remainder of the rotten tomato will produce methane in the landfill, or if it is dumped in the water, there will be a waste water treatment problem.
However, all of these Tomatoes are rich in eggplant lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that turns out to be a powerful intermediary of charge.
The researchers found that tomatoes
Microbial-based fuel cells are expected to generate electricity by using electrons generated when bacteria break down organic matter.
Previous studies have shown that tomato waste of 10 mg can produce 0.
Power of 3 watts.
Rotten Tomatoes in the ground will power our lights one day.
Both are tiny increments, but it still doesn't take much to reduce tomato waste. A 60-
For example, a watt bulb requires 2,000 mg of tomato wastewater, but less than one country is running for an hour.
The most important thing, the researchers say, is that Rotten Tomatoes are better at delivering changes than edible ones, meaning we don't have to sacrifice sandwiches.
Namita Shrestha, one of the researchers at the project, said, of course, it is difficult to scale it up.
She says you may have challenges when we try to scale up.
For example, larger-sized electrodes may not be as effective as laboratory-sized electrodes.
But the benefits may also be great.
Shrestha said that the annual tomato waste in South Florida can provide three months of motivation for Disney World.
But even so.
Technology solutions like fuel cells can make food easier
There is hope based on power.
For example, researchers in developing countries around the world are looking for a way to provide a wide range of simple, cheap electricity, and they re-examine what primary school likes most: potato batteries.
When researchers tested samples of the world's most popular red potatoes
Skin and yellow
They found that boiling potatoes increased power transmission by 10 times.
This is particularly useful in the developing world, where rural power grids may be scarce, but agriculture is not.
As more and more people rely on batteries
Potatoes provide cheap power to a variety of devices.
Potato batteries eventually cost about $9. S.
Every kilowatt hour.
This makes potatoes
Battery-based batteries are much cheaper than conventional batteries, which can run $68 per kilowatt hour and $1,200 per kilowatt hour for C batteries
Volt lithium battery.
The researchers did not particularly explore whether rotten potatoes have a big prospect, but even the basic areas of excess in the United StatesS. âx80x94about 1.
According to US data, it was 3 million tons in 2015. S.
Statisticians at the Department of Agriculture suggest a lot of power in these rags.