Onion, scientific name Allium cepa L., is also known in daily life as bulb onion, round onion, jade onion, onion head, etc., belonging to the genus Allium of the family Liliaceae. The onion is a little guy that people love and hate: when you cut it, it suddenly resists, making your face full of tears as you flee in defeat! But when you taste it, you are attracted by its flavor. Moreover, it has certain medicinal value. Now, it has an amazing new effect, which is — green power generation!
Gills Onions, the largest fresh onion processor in the United States, recently launched a new system that can convert onion juice into electricity. The company expects that this new system for generating electricity from onions is expected to save the company $700,000 in electricity bills annually and save the company up to 30,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
Steven Gill, a partner in the company, said: “Generally, 35%–40% of the onion must be peeled off before the useful part appears; the top, tail, and skin of the onion all need to be removed.” They used to haul onion waste to fields to use as fertilizer, but this disposal method had problems. Ten years ago, Gill began looking for solutions, including the use of micro-turbines.
Gill said: “Finally, we crushed the onion skins and extracted the onion juice, which has an extremely high sugar content and easily breeds bacteria. In this new system, bacteria can produce methane through the onion juice, and then this methane is used to generate electricity. Gills Onions hopes that this generator can contribute 35%–40% of the company’s electricity consumption.” — Translated by Cao Shufen
Onion Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion
When reposting, please include the address of this article: https://kexue.fm/archives/37
For more detailed reposting matters, please refer to: Scientific Space FAQ