First petrol, then corn - now oranges

07 March 2007

Spanish looking to use oranges as fuel
Excess fruit in Valencia could power cars
Peel could be turned into biofuel

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Oranges could soon be powering cars, as the Spanish want to turn them into the latest biofuel.

The regional government in Valencia believes that excess production of the fruit and its by-products could be turned into fuel for cars.

Most of the four million tonnes of oranges produced in Valencia are turned into juice, leaving the peel as a pulpy by-product.

Each tonne of this pulp could yield up to 80 litres of biofuel. Currently, there is potential to make almost 20 million litres of the fuel a year, though a government spokesman reckoned that it could almost double in the next five years as new juice processing plants come online.

The fuel would be sold to locals in Valencia, and help boost the local economy as well as reduce carbon dioxide emissions.