Orange Peels, Newspapers May Lead to Cheaper, Cleaner Ethanol Fuel
(ScienceBlog) University of Central Florida professor Henry Daniell has developed a groundbreaking way to produce ethanol from waste products such as orange peels and newspapers. His approach is greener and less expensive than the current methods available to run vehicles on cleaner fuel — and his goal is to relegate gasoline to a secondary fuel.
Daniell’s breakthrough can be applied to several non-food products throughout the United States, including sugarcane, switchgrass and straw.
…Daniell’s technique — developed with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding — uses plant-derived enzyme cocktails to break down orange peels and other waste materials into sugar, which is then fermented into ethanol.
…More research is needed before Daniell’s findings, published this month in the highly regarded Plant Biotechnology Journal, can move from his laboratory to the market. But other scientists conducting research in biofuels describe the early results as promising.
“Dr. Henry Daniell’s team’s success in producing a combination of several cell wall degrading enzymes in plants using chloroplast transgenesis is a great achievement,” said Mariam Sticklen, a professor of crop and soil sciences at Michigan State University. READ MORE and MORE Abstract
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