Banana peels can become a huge source of fuel

A British scientist has found a way to turn banana waste into a kind of briquettes for cooking, lighting and heating. This solution can prevent deforestation and help many people escape poverty.

After harvesting 1 ton of bananas, people often throw away 10 tons of garbage including leaves, stems and shells.Photo: gghpt.com.

In some African countries like Rwanda bananas are important fruits, because people use them to produce food, wine and beer. However, many experts believe that fruit is not the only part that is useful on banana trees. According to calculations by scientists, to harvest a ton of bananas, people have to discard 10 tons of waste including shells, leaves and stems.

In a visit to Rwanda, Joel Chaney, a doctoral student at Nottingham University (UK), came up with the idea of ​​turning banana peels into a fuel to take advantage of the garbage from banana processing plants. When returning to school, Chaney worked hard to find a way to burn banana peels.

At first he crushed a pile of shells and leaves and mixed them with sawdust. He then compressed the 'mixture' and dried it to form a charcoal cake. When igniting the briquettes burning and radiating very stable.

'Banana peels are very well connected to other fuels. They have properties like glue. We can squeeze fuel by hand to form a sphere, or apply pressure to compress the fuel and squeeze out water. After forcing us to be able to sunbathe and the briquettes will dry for two weeks , 'Chaney said.

For years many scientists have sought to build new types of stoves and new fuels to help people in poor countries reduce costs for cooking, lighting and heating. Many new stoves and new fuels have been created, but not used because they are too expensive or do not meet the actual needs of the people.

Mike Clifford, a professor at the University of Nottingham Machinery Department, used new briquettes to boil water and heat. He was pleased. 'We did not use any tools in the process of producing charcoal cakes, only hands. I have never seen any fuel that has a simple production process that provides such an efficient energy , 'Clifford said.

Scientists believe that banana fuel can help people reduce their reliance on firewood - the main source of energy in Africa. In some of the largest continental black producing countries such as Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi, firewood meets more than 80% of energy demand.

Too much dependence on firewood forced people to cut down forests and this situation made the greenhouse effect worse. Besides, taking firewood is also a time-consuming task.

'In many places women have to walk more than 6 hours to get a bunch of firewood, while garbage from banana trees is piled up in their garden. Straw is also a source of fuel, but you will always have to stand by the kitchen because they burn very quickly. Meanwhile, banana briquettes allow you to go out to do other things while cooking, while increasing the taste of the food , 'Chaney said.

Chaney and colleagues suggest that his simple solution will contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals and help hundreds of millions of people escape poverty.