Olive pits: Tomorrow's fuel?

GRANADA, Spain, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Spanish scientists say olive pits, also know as stones, can be turned into bioethanol and used as an alternative power source for gasoline or diesel.

The researchers from the Universities of Jaen and Granada said their finding presents the olive processing industry with an opportunity for recycling the 4 million tons of olive waste generated annually and sets a precedent for the recycling of waste products as fuels.

"The low cost of transporting and transforming olives stones make them attractive for biofuels," said researcher Sebastian Sanchez, who said olive stones produced in processing olive oil and table olives makes up around a quarter of the total fruit. He added the stones are rich in polysaccharides that can be broken down into sugar and then fermented to produce ethanol.

"This research raises the possibility of using of olive stones, which would otherwise be wasted, in producing energy. In this way we can make use of the whole food crop," said Sanchez.

The study appears in the Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology.