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Fashion and fuel go bananas: breakthrough can turn agricultural waste into textile while leftovers to power half of rural Pakistan
Scientists from Northumbria University collaborated with academics from the UK and Pakistan to tackle agricultural waste rising from producing bananas and other foods. They developed a new technology to convert banana waste into textile fibres. Further focusing on the ‘best-out-of-waste’ concept, the waste leftover from producing the banana textile will further be employed to produce renewable energy.
This two-part process aims to deliver clean electricity to 50 percent of the rural population of Pakistan predominantly dependent on energy sourced from fossil fuels currently.
80 million metric tons of agricultural waste are generated in Pakistan every year from growing bananas. Academics from Northumbria University have now teamed up with partners in the UK and Pakistan to create a new solution that will make use of this waste product and provide benefits for local people at the same time.
Together the project partners are developing an innovative two-part system – the first part of which will use new technology to convert the banana waste into textile fibers, with the second part taking the waste generated from that process and using it to produce renewable energy.
This will not only reduce the environmental impact of Pakistan’s textile industry, but also bring cleaner electricity to the 50% of people living in rural areas of the country who live off-grid and currently rely on fossil fuels for energy.
