Orange peels have been known to be a versatile type of food waste. Some people eat them; some use them to make tea to help with insomnia; and others turn them into useful tools, like juicers.
So it’s not with much surprise that orange peels are being tested as a new potential fuel item. Professor James Clark from York University has come up with a way of breaking down the molecules in fruit peels to release gases that could be converted into a liquid product. Picture a giant highly focused microwave-esque machine – kind of like Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but with orange peels.
In Brazil, the world’s largest producer of orange juice, over eight million tonnes of orange peels go to waste each year. Imagine if the peels could be put to use powering the juice factories? Or even converted into fuel for your car? It would most certainly smell nicer than petrol …
If you’re interested in knowing other unconventional ways to create fuel, check out the fizzy and the furious, a car powered by mentos and coca-cola and the Car-puccino, the coffee fueled car.
(Spotted on BBC)
Katherine Hui is currently the Social site editor at Green Thing, a web-based public service in London that inspires people to lead greener lives through creative content.
Before this, she worked as the Development Manager at Social Innovation Camp, an organization that encourages people to use web and mobile-based technology to mobilise social change. She oversaw 300 ideas submission and helped build 20 prototypes – five of which have gone on to get further funding or investment.
Katherine’s came over to the UK form Canada in 2007 for an MSc program at the London School of Economics. Before arriving in London, she managed a small environmental start-up in Vancouver called the Canadian Climate Change Alliance.
Katherine is football mad. She is a loyal supporter of Arsenal FC, plays for Islington Borough Ladies FC and coaches for Gunners in Islington in her spare time. Her second favourite hobby is kite surfing and she can sometimes be found chasing the wind.
