Rejected watermelons that are currently plowed back into the field due to blemishes or misshapenness—and therefore deemed unsalable—could be used to drive your car. Results published in the open access journal Biotechnology for Biofuels show that the juice from these culled watermelons can either be efficiently turned into ethanol or used as a diluent for other biofuel crops. Mongabay.com
The research was conducted by Wayne Fish and a team of researchers at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s South Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Lane, Oklahoma, US.
It was done to evaluate the biofuel potential of juice from ‘cull’ watermelons - those not sold due to cosmetic imperfections, and currently ploughed back into the field.
According to Fish, “About 20 percent of each annual watermelon crop is left in the field because of surface blemishes or because they are misshapen.” Gaea Times
“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 Fish.
As well as using the juice for ethanol production, either directly or as a diluent for other biofuel crops, Fish suggests that it can be a source of lycopene and L-citrulline, two ‘nutraeuticals’ for which enough demand currently exists to make extraction economically worthwhile. Times of India
Production of biofuels has been targeted by western governments as a way to bolster renewable energy targets.
The European Union has a target for 2010 that 5.75 per cent of transport fuels should come from biological sources, but the target is unlikely to be met.
The British government’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation requires five per cent of the fuel sold at the pump by 2010 to be biofuel. Telegraph.co.uk
