Assessment of orange peel waste availability in ghana and potential bio-oil yield using fast pyrolysis

The continuous escalation of crude oil prices coupled with declining food supply as a results of the growing global population and climate change have instigated many countries to look out for alternative means of reducing its fossil fuel dependency. In view of this, the study evaluates the available orange peels in Ghana as potential bio-oil producing feedstock using fast pyrolysis technology in order to supplement the country's overriding fuel demand. The paper therefore reviewed the current advancement in fast pyrolysis bio-oil production and utilization, determined the available orange peel produced from fruit processing industries in Ghana and finally determined the potential yield of fast pyrolysis bio-oil to satisfy the projected fuel demand by 2020 and 2030. From this study, Ghana has the ability to replace just about 0.09% of its diesel and petroleum demand in 2020 and 0.07% in 2030 after processing just 10% of the total oranges produced using 2013 orange production as baseline. However, increasing the area of cultivation of oranges to 1.6 million ha (the area covered by cocoa in Ghana) and considering scenarios where the percentage of oranges processed were increased to 40%, 50% and 60% as observed in Brazil, USA, Mexico and other leading producers showed promising potential. The study observed that increasing the area of cultivation of oranges to the same area occupied by cocoa in 2013 saw a possible replacement of total diesel and petrol demand of 8.73% for processing just 10% increasing to 34.92% for 40% processing, 43.65% for 50% processing and 52.38% for 60% processing by 2020. Similarly, in 2030 the country will be able to replace 6.70% of the total diesel and petrol fuels with bio-oil for processing just 10% of its oranges produced which increases to 26.80% for processing 40%, 33.5% for processing 50% and 40.20% for processing 60% of oranges producing. The country still has the potential to channel some of the produced bio-oil for cooking purposes using improved stoves rather than relying on firewood and petroleum fuels. In order to meet these potentials, the study recommended, that the government creates appropriate platform for private sector collaborations and an improvement in R & D in order to integrate the fast pyrolysis technology on large scale.