An experimental study has been carried out on an alternative source of energy from
citrus peel waste. A widely used material, pectin, has been extracted from orange peel
(OP) and subsequently converted into ethanol with the use of a bacteria and fungi.
Dried peels were split into several particle sizes of 0.075, 0.5, 1.0 and 5 mm. It was
noted that OP with 0.75 mm particle size produced pectin of low volume while larger
1.0 mm OP particle size produced a high pectin volume. OP of 802 g was used to
produce 1,770 ml of pectin, this illustrate that citrus fruit (specifically orange) contains
pectin in a large quantity. A mixture of E.coli (bacteria) with yeast (fungus), and their
individual components were used on pectin obtained. However, it was observed that a
mixture of pectin, E.coli & S. cerevisiae, and a combination of sample pectin with
E.coli produced an encouraging volume of ethanol as against no ethanol produced
when a mixture of sample pectin, yeast and pectin sample only. The amount of energy
contained in the gross ethanol produced was 1526.6 btu, this can be combined with
purified gasoline so as to attain the optimum energy content that can be used to run an
indigenous processing plant for citrus fruit in Nigeria
