Henry Daniell, a scientist from the University of Central Florida has developed a method of using household waste materials to produce ethanol.
Sources claim his approach could be greener and less expensive than current methods used to fuel vehicles which are powered by the substance.

The Engineer reports Daniell’s method has been used on products such as orange peel and newspaper, but can also be applied to products such as sugarcane, straw and switchgrass.

The method uses plant-derived enzymes to break down materials into sugar which can then be fermented into ethanol. Currently corn starch is used in the fermentation process and conversion into ethanol but this method is believed to produce more greenhouse gas emissions than petrol.

200 million gallons of ethanol could be produced from the discarded orange peels of Florida state alone, said Daniell.

Related posts:

1. British Airways unveil green fuel plan
2. Watermelon juice can provide biofuel says researchers

Watermelons could become the latest source of biofuel according to a report in the Telegraph online.

The report claims that scientists in the United States have discovered that around 50 percent of the fruit contained enough natural sugar for distilling into ethanol, which could provide valuable biofuel.

Retailers in the United States alone reject some 360,000 tonnes of ‘substandard’ fruit each year – fruit that is misshapen or blemished – which researchers suggest could produce nearly two million gallons of biofuel each year.

Currently, imperfect watermelons are ploughed back into the soil but a study into the potential of the fruit’s juice as a source of potential fuel by the US Department of Agriculture suggested the fruit could overtake chip fat, rapeseed oil and other sources of biofuel. Almost one fifth of the United States’ annual watermelon crop is left in the field due to imperfections and around twenty gallons of fuel could be produced per acre of fruit, according to the report published in the Biotechnology for Biofuels journal.

“We’ve shown that the juice of these melons is a source of readily fermentable sugars, representing a heretofore untapped feedstock for ethanol biofuel production,” said Dr Wayne Fish, the leader of the research team.

Related posts:

1. Fuel from orange peel?
2. Government says ‘yes’ to smart meters