Study on Potentials of Iran Citrus Wastes as a Feedstock for Biofuel Production

Nowadays, the consumption of fossil fuels has been increased which cause an increase in average temperature of the Earth and environmental pollutants.Therefore, finding a new source of clean and renewable energy is highly considered. One of new sources is biomass energy which comes from agricultural,animal and municipal solid waste. Citrus Waste (CW) mainly includes the peel and pulp from the juice industry, discarded fruit due to commercial reasons (damagedfruit), and discarded fruit due to legal limitations. Citrus wastes incorporate a variety of different carbohydrates that can be used as feed for production ofbiofuel such as ethanol and biogas. In 2014 about 2.59 million hectares of area were cultivated that 4.32 million ton citrus have been produced. Approximately 1.2 million ton low grade citrus have been processed in the industry where 0.68million ton citrus wastes have been created. It is estimated that about 27 million liters and 30.7 Mm3 of ethanol and biogas were produced respectively. Thisamount of ethanol can be used to improve the octane number of 243 million liters of gasoline with 10 volume percent ethanol for existing engines in Iran. Moreover,assuming 60% methane in biogas, an equivalent energy of 6 kWh can be produced compared to natural gas with 11 kWh of energy. So, there is a good potential to apply CWs in biofuel production process.

کلیدواژه ها:

Biofuel ، Bioethanol ، Biogas ، Citrus Wastes