Electricity from food: transforming restaurant scraps into volts

by James Yu, Posted Dec 29th 2005 @ 8:02AM

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District is researching how leftover foods can be turned into electricity, transforming the scraps left from restaurants and other institutions into renewable energy. Basically, certain types of bacteria are used to convert the food to gases that can be used to produce electricity. Not only would the energy source be endlessly renewable, but, the conversion would also decrease the use of landfills.

But I have to wonder--wouldn't it be more valuable to collect large quantities of leftover foods and donate them to the needy? Or perhaps open a charity kitchen that collects unused foods from restaurants? I think that would probably be a better use than to produce a little more electricity.

Filed Under: Science, Trends
Tags: bacteria, electricity, energy, food, renewable, sacramento

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-11-2006 @3:54AM Dustin McBride said... very little useable food is sent to the trash in any restaurant, most food waste is discarded food from guests plates
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