Cull Watermelon can be converted to Bioethanol

Saturday, September 5, 2009

British automotive magazine, AUTOCAR,  reports that watermelon can be used for future fuel. According to some studies, about 360,000 tons of watermelons wasted each year due to rotten and can not be sold. In addition to that condition, farmers also suffered a loss of about 20% to 40% of their crops.
The researchers in the United States has successfully extract ethanol from  watermelon to fuel a car engine. The researchers from the US agriculture department in Oklahoma find a solution to utilize wasted watermelon to convert into approximately 2.5 million liters of fuel each year.
They found that watermelon juice from rejected watermelon can be fermented into bio-ethanol. This research evaluated the biofuel potential of juice from 'cull' watermelons – those not sold due to cosmetic imperfections, and currently ploughed back into the field.
Wayne Fish from the US Department of Agriculture said, "About 20% of each annual watermelon crop is left in the field because of surface blemishes or because they are misshapen. 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."
The researchers conclude that at a "production ratio of ~0.4 g ethanol/g sugar, as measured in this study, approximately 220 L/ha of ethanol would be produced from cull watermelons."


If counted, that number is still far from the total global demand but it is meant to reduce losses due to watermelon farmers 'reject' which was formerly included in the category of useless garbage, can now be utilized and have an added  value.

Ethanol is produced from processed watermelon also has a positive value to the environment because fuel combustion is proven to produce a relatively cleaner than using mineral oil.
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. After these compounds have been removed from the 'cull' juice, it can still be fermented into ethanol.