Fueling the future with citrus waste

摘要

To establish ethanol as an alternative to petroleum fuel,researchers are seeking new sources of candidate materials that are cheap,abundant,and sustainable.In Florida,which is one of the world's largest producers of citrus products,researchers at the U.S.Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Citrus and Subtropical Products Research Laboratory are looking for ways to use the approx 3 million t of wet pulp and peel waste produced every year by citrus-processing companies.The waste could yield 50 million gal of ethanol fuel annually,says Bill Widmer,the researcher heading the project.