As nowadays oil prices are spiking, the alternative green biofuels are becoming more and more attractive and the gap between the costs of green biofuel production relative to cost of oil is closing. Scientists are constantly developing new technologies to fuel our tomorrow energy needs and the race to find the most efficient alternative fuel, which can rival oil, has already begun.
One of these companies which are developing a green fuel from banana waste is Growcom, one of Australia’s leading horticulture organization. The organization has recently completed the major infrastructure on the banana plantation of Bush Holdings at Tully required for its Banana Waste to Energy project. The goal of the project is to transform a laboratory study, made by the Division of Environmental Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2005, into a commercially viable energy plant. The process transforms the waste banana material, loaded into anaerobic digester, into biomethane, which can then be used to fuel vehicles.
As the project manager and Growcom Board member Keith Noble said “an over-riding principle of the project has been to use locally available materials and expertise wherever possible.” “The system must also integrate with existing farm practices. If on-farm digesters are to have a commercial future they must add to farm efficiency and be simple to operate.”
While currently an estimate of 30 percent of crops is going to waste, this method could present a valuable alternative for producing green biofule.
{Source: http://www.ngvglobal.com}
