New 'OPEC' offers sustainable smell of sweet success
WASHINGTON,
June 18, 2012 — The least appealing part of the world's most popular citrus
fruits could soon be more alluring to cosmetic and drug manufacturers and,
perhaps, eventually help heat our homes and fuel our cars.
In research
described today at the 16th annual Green Chemistry & Engineering
Conference, scientists from the United Kingdom said they have developed a sustainable
way to extract and find uses for virtually every bit of the 15.6 million tons
of orange and other citrus peel discarded worldwide every year. These uses
could include biosolvents, fragrances and water purification. The project,
dubbed the Orange Peel Exploitation Company (OPEC), is a partnership between
researchers from the University of York, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and
the University of Cordoba, Spain. The research team hopes to have a prototype
biorefinery up and running soon.
The conference
(www.gcande.org) is sponsored by the American Chemical Society's Green
Chemistry Institute® (ACS GCI).
"This
is a great example of what can be done with something that is produced in
quantities that would astound people," said James Clark, Ph.D., director
of the University of York's Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence. "At the
moment, orange peel has very little value and actually can have a negative
effect on the environment. We believe that using the biorefinery concept in
combination with the principles of green chemistry will allow us to make a
whole series of products that can displace traditional, often
petrochemical-based, manufacturing processes."
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A NEW "OPEC" ENERGY SOURCE: BIOFUEL
FROM BRAZILIAN ORANGE PEELS
January
13th, 2012