Turning food waste into value: Developing triboelectric devices for various applications from pomelo-peel biomass

Food waste is an enormous challenge, with implications for the environment, society, and economy. Every year around the world, 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted or lost, and food-waste disposal costs around $2.6 trillion. Waste valorization has been shown to mitigate these negative impacts. The resulting optimized pomelo-peel biomass-derived porous material-based triboelectric nanogenerator (PP-TENG) had an open circuit voltage of 58 V and a peak power density of 254.8 mW/m2. As porous structures enable such triboelectric devices to respond sensitively to external mechanical stimuli, we tested our optimized PP-TENG’s ability to serve as a self-powered sensor of biomechanical motions. As well as successfully harvesting sufficient mechanical energy to power light-emitting diodes and portable electronics, our PP-TENGs successfully monitored joint motions, neck movements, and gait patterns, suggesting their strong potential for use in healthcare monitoring and physical rehabilitation, among other applications. As such, the present work opens up various new possibilities for transforming a prolific type of food waste into value-added products, and thus could enhance long-term sustainability while reducing food waste.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Food Science & Human Nutrition

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Li, Longwen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Wang, Yi-Cheng
• Engeseth, Nicki
• Miller, Michael

• Food Waste
• Nanogenerators
• Porous Materials
• Sensors

Statement dc:rights

• N/A

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125723

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F125723