TSU, Mie Prefecture–\u00a0A remote-controlled 14-kilogram vehicle successfully ran on gas blended with the novel biofuel in an experiment in September, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis biofuel has the potential to be used for gasoline-powered farm tractors and mowers,\u201d said Yutaka Tamaru, professor of bioengineering at the university\u2019s Graduate School and Faculty of Bioresources, who led the research group.<\/p>\n
With the innovation, the scientists aim at utilizing substandard oranges, grown on local farms, to produce biofuel that could power farmers\u2019 vehicles used for fieldwork.<\/p>\n
The team has been experimenting on the possible use of damaged and rotting oranges as well as orange waste since the last fiscal year to recycle the fruit, the specialty of Mihama, a town in the southern part of the prefecture.<\/p>\n
Under the experiment, they mixed clostridium cellulovorans, a microorganism isolated from wood chips, with such oranges in a tank with a 2- to 10-liter capacity.<\/p>\n
Clostridium cellulovorans decomposes cellulose fibers, a main component of plant fibers, efficiently and produces fermentable sugar.<\/p>\n
If this sugar is fermented with another microorganism added, it produces orange biofuel in about 10 days.<\/p>\n
The team could extract about 20 milliliters of biofuel out of about 3 kg of oranges.<\/p>\n
According to Tamaru, mainstream bioethanol is made from crops such as corn and sugar cane in the United States and Brazil.<\/p>\n
But one drawback to this type of bioethanol is that it tends to corrode the metal parts of the vehicle since it is prone to combining with moisture in the air in the distribution process.<\/p>\n
Due to this reason, the mixture of bioethanol in the gas has to be limited to about 3 percent of the total.<\/p>\n
One other potential hurdle to using corn and sugar cane to produce bioethanol is that it may lower the volume of these items available as food sources.<\/p>\n
However, in regard to oranges, only those that are discarded will be used.<\/p>\n
The orange biofuel is also not as corrosive as bioethanol since 70 percent of its components are biobutanol, which does not mix easily with moisture.<\/p>\n
Biobutanol also produces more heat than bioethanol at a level close to gasoline, making it possible to raise the percentage of the orange biofuel in the gas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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