They Found an Incredible Use for Orange Peels. How it Benefits Our Health? Shocking!

orange peel

What do you think of having an orange peel as a material in wastewater treatment facilities? They can filter out unhealthy metals and other contaminants. Impressive, hunh?

These researchers have figured out a process to turn citrus peels—oranges and grapefruits were tested, though the process could in the future apply to other peels—into a sort of burnt-umber sediment by first dehydrating then, then chemically treating them to mess with the acid/base ratio and their texture. That enables the peels to filter out exactly the metals we don’t want in our water, and to enhance their adsorption. (Not absorption, mind you: adsorption describes a filtering process, in which undesired materials can’t make it through a material and instead form a sort of film on the outside.)

Their first test was with copper and the results were great.

Research is in its infancy but the potential decontamination of any potentially toxic heavy metal present in water is brilliant. To learn more go to Modern Farmer. It finally looks like the orange peel has obtained the respect it has earned.

Hey, maybe one day we’ll be fueling our cars with banana peels and cherry pits! Never say Never!


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