Banana Skin for Fuel • By admin, 2 April, 2012
Researchers at Nottingham University have managed to make banana peels into usable fuel, ridding the need to gather firewood for cooking, boiling water and heating. Since there is an estimated 10 tons of waste (made up of skins, leaves and stems) for every 1 ton of bananas eaten, this new low-tech briquette can be extremely beneficial not just economically but also for the environment. According to the BBC report, it was on a visit to Rwanda that Joel Chaney, a PhD student from the University of Nottingham came up with the idea of turning banana waste into an efficient fuel source. He first mashes a pile of rotting skins and leaves. This pulp is then mixed with saw dust, compressed and dried to create briquettes that ignite readily and throw out a steady heat, ideal for cooking. “The banana skins bind other materials together really well, they act like glue,” says Mr Chaney. Best of all, no machines are needed to make these banana briquettes which means that the locals can easily make them. This could be a great boon indeed for third world countries, especially the so called “banana republics”. Page 11