RTE Stuttgart - Spanish scientists from the Universities of Jaén and Granada have developed a method to gain from olive stones biofuel. The advantage of this method lies in the fact that no processed foods and no additional land will be claimed, the researchers write in the Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology "(published online).
In the processing of olives a year fell four million tonnes of seeds as waste, which could be used for the production of bio-ethanol. "The low costs incurred for the export and processing, the olive stones make an attractive raw material for the production of biofuel," said the researcher Sebastián Sánchez. Made of 100 kilograms of olive stones could be obtained 5.7 kg ethanol.
The researchers acknowledged that the accumulating total quantity of olive stones as compared to other waste materials in agriculture and forestry is relatively low. If you develop for any agricultural waste similar procedures, one could achieve a significant energy gain.
