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Feature
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Written by Sabrina Deparine
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Tuesday, 01 September 2009 11:08 |
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Page views: 815 |
With the mandates on the use of biofuel, the Philippines is surely on the lookout for other sources of feedstock that are widely available in the archipelago and are cheaper and easier to process and to convert to biofuels.
A recent study made by Wayne Fish from the United States Department of Agriculture (Agriculture Research Laboratory) will surely benefit not only the American but the Filipinos as well. According to the study, 20% of the watermelons in the U.S. never make it in the market. Why? Because 1 out of 5 watermelons is left to ripen and rot in the field. These are what they call as the “rejects”. Even the slightest sign of imperfection on the watermelon’s physical appearance may cause it to be rejected because consumers are always looking for the perfect watermelon to serve on the dining or picnic table. They do not want to buy watermelons that do not have the perfect shape or that have blemishes.
Growers or farmers also tend to suffer from these rejects since a large percentage of their crops are left to rot in the field. In order to address this concern and to eliminate the volume of spoilage, researchers from the USDA have decided to put these rejected watermelons into good use: for biofuel production.
It is common knowledge that ethanol fuels are produced through the breaking down of complex sugars. The raw sugar output is then fermented to yield ethanol. For crops, the starch content is first treated with special enzymes to break it down to basic sugar. With watermelons, the process becomes simpler and easier because the fruit naturally has simple sugars. This means that it yields simple or raw sugar immediately, making the process of converting it to ethanol more efficient and less complex.
When the researchers tried converting the sugar content of watermelon to ethanol, the results were commendable. For one, they were able to ferment both the juice from the flesh and the rind of the watermelons. This means that the whole fruit has been optimized for ethanol production. Also, 10 tons of watermelons, which is about the amount of culled watermelons per acre, was able to yield 115 gallons of ethanol (1,100 liters per hectare).
 Aside from ethanol production, the low sugar concentration of watermelons (around 10%) may also be used as supplement and dilutant for the conversion of other crops to ethanol.
At the moment, the process of converting watermelon to biofuel is still new. As such, the operational costs such as labor and transportation costs may not be practical. However, the good news is a company based in Texas is currently working on a “mobilized processing system” that would allow the whole process to be taken from field to field.
What does this have to do with the Philippines? In case you have forgotten, the Philippines is a tropical country, rich in natural resources. Fruits are teeming among the islands in the archipelago and one of these fruits is the watermelon. With this discovery along with the abundant supply of watermelons, the Filipinos need not have to worry about the mandates of the Biofuels Act of 2006. Soon enough, they will be able to produce sufficient ethanol to meet the demands in the local oil market.
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