Critical Reviews in Biotechnology

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Biorefinery of waste orange peel

José Ángel Siles López, Qiang Li & Ian P. Thompson

To cite this article: José Ángel Siles López, Qiang Li & Ian P. Thompson (2010)
Biorefinery of waste orange peel, Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 30:1, 63-69, DOI:
10.3109/07388550903425201

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Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 2010; 30(1): 63–69

REVIEW ARTICLE

Biorefinery of waste orange peel

José Ángel Siles López1, Qiang Li2, and Ian P. Thompson2
1
Departamento de Química Inorgánica e Ingeniería Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus
Universitario de Rabanales, Edificio Marie Curie (C-3). Ctra. Madrid-Cádiz, Córdoba, Spain, and 2Department of
Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Begbroke Science Park, Sandy Lane, Yarnton, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, UK

Abstract
Up to comparatively recently orange peel and the associated residual remnants of membranes resulting from
juice extraction represented a significant disposal problem, especially in those regions where orange cultivation
is a major industry. However, recent research has demonstrated that orange peel waste represents a potentially
valuable resource that can be developed into high value products. These developments are critically reviewed
in this article. This includes a summary of the chemical composition of the substrate and an assessment of the
range of applications in which the peel is deployed. Utilization as a substrate to produce animal feed, fertilizer,
essential oils, pectin, ethanol, methane, industrial enzymes, and single cell protein is discussed. The applications
described together with those that will no doubt be developed in the future, represent great opportunities to
harness the economical benefit of this agro-industrial waste and to develop even more efficient and sustainable
systems. A scheme of integrated utilization of orange peel in a biorefinery approach is discussed together with
some prediction of further necessary research.
Keywords:  Biorefinery; waste orange peel; D-limonene; pectin; bioethanol; methane; pectic enzymes; singe cell
protein

Introduction
The cultivation of oranges is a major industry and a significant
component of the economies of the United States (Florida
and California), Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, China, India,
Iran, and most Mediterranean countries. According to the
Statistical Database of the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAOSTAT), world orange production in
2007 was estimated to be 63,906,094 tonnes, of which Brazil
is the largest producer with an output of 18,279,309 tonnes.
In the United States, production was 7,357,000 tonnes whilst
in Europe it was 6,199,986 tonnes. As well as orange juice
this production results in broad range of other commodities
including sweet orange oil (90% D-limonene), orange blos-
som, orange blossom honey, citrus honey, and marmalade,
a conserve typically made of Seville oranges. Approximately,
50–60% of the processed fruit becomes citrus peel waste,
which is composed of the peel, seeds and membrane resi-
dues resulting from juice extraction (Wilkins et al., 2007a).
Until comparatively recently these waste products led to sig-
nificant disposal problems, since there was no satisfactory
means of disposal other than dumping on land adjacent to
the production sites. This led in some regions to the genera-
tion of large tracts of land containing significant quantities
of putrefying waste which presents a significant risk to local
water courses and in some cases leads to uncontrolled meth-
ane production. Traditionally, the only other disposal routes
for waste orange peels were to utilize it as raw material in
the manufacture of cattle feed or simply to burn it (Lapuerta
et al., 2008; Ghani et al., 2009). These routes would also gen-
erate global warming gases, although some of the carbon
dioxide generated from combustion would not contribute
significantly to a net increase, since it would be subsequently
assimilated by plants. This disposal problem has stimulated
significant recent interest in developing more responsible
ways of dealing with waste orange products, ideally with the
added benefit of yielding high value products and establish-
ing more environmentally responsible approaches.
Compositional analyses of orange peel
In order to harness the maximum value from waste peel, it
is essential to have reliable information regarding its chemi-
cal composition. Briefly orange peel contains soluble sugar,

Address for Correspondence:  Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Begbroke Science Park, Sandy Lane, Yarnton, Kidlington, Oxfordshire OX5
1PF, UK. E-mail: ian.thompson@eng.ox.ac.uk.

(Received 30 April 2009; revised 14 October 2009; accepted 14 October 2009)

ISSN 0738-8551 print/ISSN 1549-7801 online © 2010 Informa UK Ltd

DOI: 10.3109/07388550903425201 http://www.informahealthcare.com/bty
64   José Ángel Siles López, Qiang Li, and Ian P. Thompson

starch, fiber including cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and
pectin, ash, fat and protein, and the quantitative composition
is detailed in Table 1 (Rivas et al., 2008). The small quantities
that are not identified (about 4.35% of the peel) in the table
include organic acids such as citric acid, malic acid, malonic
acid, and oxalic acid, which collectively represent about 1%
and vitamins such as Vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Bampidis
and Robinson (2006) also investigated the composition of
orange peel, and reported that the dry matter (DM) content
of orange peel is mainly organic, containing proteins and
many other short-chain (no more than four carbons) organic
acids (Table  2). It is worthy of note that the pH of orange
peel can be as low as 3.64. This means neutralization of pH
may be required for some applications. However, as with all
plant products the exact chemical composition of oranges
varies and is affected by factors such as growing conditions,
maturity, rootstock, variety, and climate (Kale and Adsule,
1995).
Direct utilization of orange peel
Applications which utilize the whole orange peel without
differentiating individual constituents represent the simplest
way to process the raw material.
Animal feed
As with most plant substrates orange peel is an attractive
nutrient source to microbial communities and in particular
those inhabiting the rumen (Table 2), which have evolved
and adapted to use plant materials. This has traditionally
been exploited by feeding the high energy waste orange
feed to ruminants promoting microbial growth and lacta-
tion. Indeed body weight increase in cattle is far greater
when fed orange waste than starch rich feeds (Bampidis and
Robinson, 2006). Tripodo et al. (2004) described a method
which makes it possible to obtain animal feed from citrus
juice centrifugation pulp. To this end, alkaline, and/or enzy-
matic treatments were carried out on the centrifugated pulp.
The product obtained with this method showed excellent
digestibility in vitro and its protein content, although not
especially high, compared favorably with that of many other
agroindustrial waste products currently used as components
of animal feed. However, it should be noted that there is a
limit to the amount of orange peel that can be added to the
feed, since at high concentrations it can cause rumen parak-
eratosis, particularly when the level of dietary forage is low.
Furthermore, preparation of the feed additive requires great
care since poor preservation of citrus by-products can lead to
the development of mycotoxins that are extremely deleteri-
ous to ruminants (Bampidis and Robinson, 2006). In order
to avoid generation of toxins a prior drying step would be
necessary, although this would inevitably lead to an increase
in product price. In addition, poor preservation could lead
to uncontrolled methane production. Thus, the traditional
exploitation of orange peel waste as animal feed has its risks,
which has stimulated research into alternative applications
yielding high value products.
Organic fertilizer
An alternative application of waste orange peel is to convert
it to a fertilizer by composting (van Heerden et  al., 2002).
This has been successfully achieved by modifying the citrus
waste by adjusting its C/N ratio, pH, and moisture content
to 24:1, 6.3, and 60%, respectively, and piling the modified
substrate under shelter. With regular turning and watering,
and a thermophilic phase lasting between 65 and 70 days,
composting can be completed within 3 months. Table 3
details the main characteristics of mature compost, which

Table 1.  The chemical composition of orange peel (Rivas et al., 2008) (in percentage).
Hemi-
Soluble sugar Starch Cellulose cellulose Lignin Pectin Ash Fat Protein Others
16.90 3.75 9.21 10.50 0.84 42.50 3.50 1.95 6.50 4.35

Table 2.  The chemical composition of orange peel (Bampidis and Robinson, 2006) (g/kg DM).
Organic Neutral Acid detergent Propionic Isobutyric
matter Crude protein detergent fibre fibre Lactic acid Acetic acid acid acid Calcium Phosphate pH
975 58 200 129 23.0 20.0 0.3 0.6 7.3 1.7 3.64
One kilogram of orange peel contains 233 g DM.

Table 3.  Characterization of mature compost from orange peel (van Heerden et al., 2002).
Air filled porosity Water-holding Bulk density Conductivity Phosphorus Potassium Calcium Magnesium
(%) capacity (mL/L) (g/cm3) (mS/m) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L)
14 590 1.05 480 15 1170 362 121

Sodium (mg/L) Chloride Boron Water-soluble Water-soluble Total carbon Total nitrogen C/N ratio
(mg/L) (mg/L) nitrogen (mg/L) organic matter (% DM) (% DM)
(mg/L)
32 143 0.31 126 4788 8.85 1.26 7

demonstrates some, but acceptable levels of phytotoxic-
ity. Another potential concern is that the relatively high
conductivity of the compost may promote salinity, but its
air-filled porosity, water holding capacity, and bulk density
are typically within the limits conducive to plant growth.
In fact, in field experiments, preplant incorporation of the
compost into soil at a rate of 2, 4, and 8 kg/m2 improved the
growth of citrus trees by as much as 25%, compared to con-
trol groups in which trees were planted in non-amended soil.
Furthermore, in a parallel study (Guerrero et al., 1995) the
potential of peel waste as a more directly applied organic
soil fertilizer was investigated by testing its impact on lettuce
(Lactuca sativa L., osteolata variety) yields. This was deter-
mined in a poor soil, from the Algarve region, by drying and
grinding up the peel to an average particle size of 10 mm
and then applying it to the soil, specifically to increase its
nitrogen content. The authors reported on increases between
30% and 130% of both fresh- and dry-matter with increasing
amounts of either orange pulp or peel applied. No phytotox-
icity was observed.
Biorefinery of orange peel
The direct utilization of orange peel is the simplest option
for implementation, requiring little infrastructure or invest-
ment, whilst potentially greatly increasing the value of the
waste material. However, orange peel contains many high
value compounds (Table 1). With increasing knowledge of
orange peel, it is now possible to increase the value of this
significant agricultural waste further by taking a biorefin-
ery approach. A biorefinery is most commonly defined as
a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and
equipment to produce fuels, power, and chemicals ideally
from waste biomass. The biorefinery concept is analogous to
today’s petroleum refineries, which produce multiple fuels
and products from petroleum and importantly utilizing the
entire gross starting product. This differs from the current way
we treat crops such as cereals, where the grain is treated as
high value, whilst much of the remaining plant has tradition-
ally been treated as low grade waste. By producing multiple
products, a biorefinery can take advantage of the differences
in biomass components and intermediates, and maximize
the value derived from the biomass feedstock while leaving
little waste.
Extraction of the high value compounds
Orange peel contains many high value compounds, which
if extracted employing state of the art technologies, could
transform what is typically considered to be a problematic
substrate to a high value commodity. Among these essential
oils and pectin are the most attractive in terms of potential
economic value.
Essential oils
Citrus fruit contains essential oils, which are widely
employed in the food industry as flavors. They are located
in oil sacs or glands that range in diameter ranging from
Biorefinery of waste orange peel   65
0.4 to 0.6 mm and are located at irregular depths in the
flavedo located at the outer rind of the fruit. Orange peel
typically contains more than 5 kg of oil per 1000 kg of oranges
and approximately 90% of this is D-limonene (Braddock,
Temelli, and Cadwallader, 1986; Hull, Lindsay, and Baier,
1953), a hydrocarbon, classified as a cyclic terpene (Figure 1).
It is colorless liquid at room temperature, with an extremely
strong orange odor. As the main odorous constituent of cit-
rus (plant family Rutaceae), D-limonene is employed in the
manufacture of food and medicines as a flavoring agent.
It also has many applications in the chemical industry,
cosmetics and domestic household products (Smyth and
Lambert, 1998). The process of extracting D-limonene from
orange peel is relatively simply and well established. It can
be removed from the peel by cold pressing, steam distillation
or solvent extraction, usually with hexane or carbon dioxide
(Hull, Lindsay, and Baier, 1953).
Pectin
Pectin is a structural heteropolysaccharide, and is exploited
in the food industry as a gelling agent. It is also employed
in fillings, sweets, as a stabilizer in fruit juices, and milk
drinks. Orange peel contains appreciable quantities of
pectin (Table 1), and thus it is an important source of this
high value commodity. There are well established extraction
procedures (Ma, Cervera, and Sanchez, 1993) developed to
extract and recover pectin from orange peel. Briefly, it is first
dried and then subjected to acidic hydrolysis. The hydro-
lysate is separated, concentrated by boiling under vacuum
and extracted by ethanol. The gel that forms after storing
for 24 h at low temperature is separated by filtration and
dried at 70°C. Under optimal conditions, a pectin yield of
13.24% can be achieved. Moreover, the solid matter left after
acidic hydrolysis can be subsequently exploited to manu-
facture activated carbon, which further increases the value
of the peel. As well as acid extraction, pectin can also be
extracted from citrus peel by polygalacturonase generated
by inoculating whey with the yeast Kluveromyces fragilis
(Donaghy and McKay, 1994). Conditions for pectin extrac-
tion from orange peel were optimized with regard to enzyme
concentration, water:peel ratio, temperature, and duration
of treatment. Increased liberation of pectin was achieved
at 37°C compared to 25°C over 24 h period. A reduction in
CH3
CH3
H C
CH2
Figure 1.  Chemical structure of D-limonene.
66   José Ángel Siles López, Qiang Li, and Ian P. Thompson
pectin release was observed when the water:peel ratio was
less than 12:1.
Conversion of lignocellulose to high value products
employing microbes
Orange peel has appreciable quantities of cellulose, hemi-
cellulose, and lignin, which constitute the largest organic
component residing after extraction of higher value products.
In order to fully exploit the value of orange peel, intensive
research has been undertaken to identify effective proto-
cols to convert the relatively low value, but highly abundant
compounds into high value products. In most cases microbial
fermentation plays a key role in these processes.
Ethanol
Ethanol has wide applications as a solvent, scent, flavoring
and medicine and has a long history of applications as a fuel
for heating. Demand for fuels generated from renewable
resources has increased in recent years due to the fluctuat-
ing oil price, concerns about greenhouse gas production, and
increasing reliance on foreign sources of energy in the United
States and Europe. A second generation of bioethanol focuses
on conversion from cellulose, because of its large-scale avail-
ability, low cost and environmentally benign production. In
particular, many energy production and utilization cycles
based on cellulosic biomass have near-zero greenhouse gas
emissions on a life-cycle basis (Lynd et al., 2005). Orange peel
has been demonstrated to be a good source for ethanol pro-
duction, a process which occurs via an enzymatic hydrolysis
step and subsequent fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevi-
siae (Wilkins, Widmer, and Grohmann, 2007b). S. cerevisiae
is more effective at converting orange peel to ethanol than
the ethanologenic yeast Kluvyeromyces marxianus (Wilkins
et al., 2007a; Ghani et al., 2009). It is essential to adapt the
cellulosic ethanol process when employing orange peel as
the feedstock. As stated previously, orange peel is rich in
organic acids and contains essential oils, both of which are
well-known antimicrobial agents (Braddock, Temelli, and
Cadwallader, 1986; Plessas et al., 2007). Because of this fea-
ture it is essential to determine the threshold concentration
of D-limonene that can inhibit ethanol production. Minimum
inhibitory peel oil concentrations for ethanol production
have been determined to be 0.05% at 24 h, 0.10% at 48 h, and
0.15% at 72 h, respectively for both S. cerevisiae and K. marxi-
anus (Wilkins, Widmer, and Grohmann, 2007b). The authors
also found pretreatment by steam explosion removed 90% of
D-limonene in the orange peel. Not surprisingly, neutraliza-
tion of pH was required to achieve the greatest productivity
when organic acids become less toxic to exposed microbial
cells.
Methane
Methane is the principal component of natural gas and can
be produced from a range of sustainable substrates anaero-
bically by methanogenic bacteria. The process is well estab-
lished and has been applied specifically for the generation of
methane from waste orange peel. The thermophilic anaerobic
digestion of industrial orange waste (pulp and peel), with
subsequent aerobic post-treatment of the digestate, has
been successfully demonstrated (Kaparaju and Rintala,
2006). In anaerobic batch cultures, methane production rates
of about 0.49 m3/kg volatile solids (VS) (added peel waste)
were achieved. In semicontinuous anaerobic cultures, load-
ing of 2.8 kg VS/m3·d and hydraulic retention times (HRT) of
26 days generated a specific methane yield of 0.60 m3/kg VS.
However, this required a pH adjustment (from an initial 3.2
to 8.0) by the addition of CaCO3. Consequently, an aerobic
treatment with activated sludge transformed volatile fatty
acids into carbon dioxide and water as well as ammonia into
nitrate. However, in order to remove the nitrogen an addi-
tional denitrification step would be required. There were no
significant differences in terms of methane generation when
different fruit and vegetable wastes, such as mango, pineap-
ple, tomato, jackfruit, banana, and orange, were used as the
feedstocks (Viswanath, Devi, and Nand, 1992). Furthermore,
methane production can be improved by pretreatment of the
orange peel with selected strains of Sporotrichum, Aspergillus,
Fusarium, and Penicillium (Srilatha et al., 1995). The fungal
pretreatment enhanced the availability of nutrient in the
medium, reduced the concentrations of antimicrobial com-
ponents and enabled the utilization of a higher loading rate
of the substrates than the control.
As well as the orange peel, waste water from the press-
ing of this by-product is also a good substrate for methane
production (Siles et al., 2007, 2008). When orange peel is
used as animal feed, the first step in this is the pressing
of the rind which generates significant quantity of waste-
water. This is very polluting due to the high concentration
of organic matter (147,680 mg of total chemical oxygen
demand (COD)/L) and high alkalinity (8360 mg CaCO3/L),
given that in the pressing process Ca(OH)2 is used as binder.
Prior to anaerobic treatment this waste was subjected to a
physicochemical treatment using aluminium sulphate as
flocculant (at a concentration of 100 mg/L), with the aim
of removing part of the solids content that would hinder
and slow its anaerobic treatment, and for pH reduction
(from 11.21 to 5.50). In batch cultures of waste water treated
by anaerobic digestion, 84% of the soluble COD was suc-
cessfully removed, generating a methane yield of 295 mL
of CH4/g COD removed. However, high COD loadings
were found to inhibit methane production, suggesting the
existence of some antimicrobial component in the waste
water.
Industrial enzymes
Citrus peel contains appreciable quantities of pectin which
can induce the synthesis of pectic enzymes by the microbial
communities that grow on them. Pectic enzymes have a
broad range of applications in the fruit juice industry to facili-
tate extraction and clarification of the juices (Rombouts and
Pilnik, 1986). Pectic enzyme production by Aspergillus foe-
tidus in solid-state cultures, on a laboratory scale, employing
citrus waste as substrate has been demonstrated (Garzon and
Hours, 1992). Viscosimetric activities up to 1600–1700 U/g

were attained after 36 h of culturing on the waste supple-
mented with yeast extract and mineral salts. Additionally, the
yield of pectinases was 25% greater than that achieved with
apple pomace as the substrate with the same fungal strain
and under the identical culture conditions. Siessere and Said
(1989) investigated pectinase production by Talaromyces
flavus, Penicillium charlessi, and Tubercularia vulgaris, in
solid-state cultures on citrus pulp waste. P. charlessi produced
the most active pectic enzymes between 4 and 6 days of cul-
tivation (15.06 U/g DM), followed by T. vulgaris (14.04 U/g
DM) and T. flavus (9.42 U/g DM). Production of multienzyme
preparations containing pectinolytic, cellulolytic, and xylano-
lytic enzymes, by the mesophilic fungi Aspergillus niger BTL,
Fusarium oxysporum F3, Neurospora crassa DSM 1129 and
Penicillium decumbens, under solid-state fermentation of dry
orange peel was also investigated. Adjustment of the initial
pH and moisture were found to be beneficial to enzyme pro-
duction (Mamma, Kourtoglou, and Christakopoulos, 2008).
The selected fungi were also compared for their abilities to
secret specific enzymes when grown on orange peel. Under
optimal conditions A. niger BTL was found to produce the
greatest yield of polygalacturonase, pectate lyase, xylanase,
β-xylosidase, and invertase. N. crassa DSM 1129 produced
the highest yield of endoglucanase.
In addition to solid-state culturing, orange peel can
also be used in submerged cultures. Continuous cultures
of Bacillus subtilis 11089 maintained on a basal medium
with orange peel as a sole carbon and energy sources, have
been successfully employed to produce extracellular hydro-
lytic enzymes (Mahmood, Greenman, and Scragg, 1998).
Enzyme production yields from orange peel were similar
to, or better than those obtained from glucose in all trials.
This was probably due to the nutrient-rich nature of orange
peel.
Single cell protein
Single cell protein (SCP) extracted from cultured algae,
yeasts, or bacteria are commonly employed as substitutes
for protein-rich foods, especially in pet food. Waste orange
peel has also been exploited as a substrate to produce SCP.
Productions from solid-state cultures of Geotrichum candi-
dum using acid pretreated orange peel has been successfully
demonstrated (Locurto et al., 1992; Vaccarino et al., 1989).
This typically contains 35–40% crude protein characterized
by a very high in vitro digestibility (73–88%). From the solid
residue obtained after an acidic pretreatment of the peel, hes-
peridin, a high-value by-product (vitamin P), was recovered,
reaching yields ranging between 3.7% and 4.5% DM (Locurto
et al., 1992). This by-product thus increases the cost-efficacy
of the whole process.
Other uses
As well as providing a source of high value substrates, waste
orange peel has been exploited in a range of other applica-
tions, which although not well studied hold great exploitable
potential.
Biorefinery of waste orange peel   67
1. Pollutant absorbent: Orange peel has also been employed
as a contaminant absorbing agent, targeting chemical
components occurring in aqueous wastes. So far it has
been shown to be effective for the adsorptive removal
of methylene blue, a redox indicator that is widely
used in analytical chemistry, and Direct Red 23 and 80
(Arami et al., 2005; Navasivayam et al., 2003), which are
textile dyes. It has also been reported to be an effective
absorbent of heavy metals ions (Ajmal et al., 2000). Many
biosorption studies are concerned with monometallic
systems. However, in practice, industrial waste water
usually contains more than one metal. The absorption
of several metal ions (Cd2+, Zn2+, and Pb2+) by orange peel
has been also investigated in binary mixtures (Cd2+–Zn2+,
Cd2+–Pb2+, and Zn2+–Pb2+) (Perez-Marin et  al., 2008).
The maximum sorption uptake was approximately 0.25
mmol/g for the three binary systems studied. In addi-
tion, it is particularly notable that orange peel immo-
bilized onto zirconium (IV) removed four times more
phosphate anions than commercially available zirco-
nium ferrite with no associated peel material (Biswas
et al., 2008). Studies with fixed bed columns confirmed
the complete adsorption of phosphate in a continuous
operation. Zirconium leakage was prevented throughout
the operating time.
2. Activated citrus peel extract: Another potentially valu-
able application of orange peel is its employment as
an activated citrus peel extract (ACPE) (Medvedev and
Kat, 2004). This typically comprises of at least one of the
following: oligosaccharides, short peptides, flavonoid
glycosides, fatty acids, and triglycerides. ACPE has also
been found to be effective as a dermatological treatment
for various skin conditions. It was also effective for pre-
serving food, beverages, and cosmetics.
3. Paper pulp supplement: The relatively high concen-
trations of cellulose and hemicellulose in citrus peel,
together with its low concentrations of lignin and ash
render orange peel ideally suited for use as a paper pulp
supplement (Ververis et al., 2007). Studies have dem-
onstrated that its addition had no detrimental effect on
breaking length and indeed increased bursting strength
and decreased tearing resistance. The cost of orange
peel was about 45% lower than that of conventional
pulp, resulting in a 0.9–4.5% reduction in final paper
price.
4. Succinic acid: Succinic acid is a dicarboxylic acid
(Figure  2), predicted to be one of the future plat-
form chemicals that can be derived from renewable
resources. Products such as polyamides, polyesters,
and polyester amides can all be obtained by chemi-
cal conversion of succinic acid (Bechthold et al., 2008;
Zeikus, Jain, and Elankovan, 1999). Bio-based succinate
has been produced by bacterial fermentation using
various sugar sources (Isar et al., 2006; Lin et al., 2008;
Liu et al., 2008; Songa et al., 2008). Our research group
is currently investigating the generation of succinate
from orange peel.
68   José Ángel Siles López, Qiang Li, and Ian P. Thompson
O in one step will be employed as raw material in the following
OH
HO
O
Figure 2.  Chemical structure of succinic acid.
Conclusions and future work
With growing knowledge on orange peel, it is now pos-
sible to increase the value of this significant agricultural
waste by taking a biorefinery approach. Specifically in the
case of orange peel it is known to contain high concentra-
tions of pectin (42.5% DM) and substantial quantities of
D-limonene (estimated to be 4.0% ∼DM), both of which are
of great value (Braddock et al., 1986; Wilkins et al., 2007a;
Bampidis and Robinson, 2006). The biomass left over after
extraction, mainly consists of lignocellulose, which is an
excellent sugar source that supports the growth of micro-
organisms able to generate other high value products. A
reasonable schematic proposal of biorefinery of orange
peel is presented in Figure 3. The first step would consist
of the removal of essential oils. This would be followed by
an assessment of how the impact of oil removal influenced
subsequent ethanol and methane production. Other high
value products such as pectin, industrial enzymes, and sin-
gle cell protein would also been removed before the final
step of utilizing the remaining lignin as an energy source.
Research has shown that the integrated use of orange peel
is now a practical and economic option. Large scale appli-
cations are likely to be forthcoming. However, more effort is
still required in the following areas. (a) A greater knowledge
of the chemical constituents of orange peel, with the aim of
detecting more high value products. (b) Design of chemical
engineering processes that can adapt to a variety of feedstocks.
(c) Development of microbial strains more efficient at convert-
ing orange peel into high value products using classic muta-
genesis or metabolic engineering. (d) Integrated study of the
Orange peel
Solvent extraction Essential oils
Fermentation
Solid residue
Acidic hydrolysis
Pectin
Hexose, pentose, lignin
Industrial enzymes
Ethanol
Single cell protein
Fermentation
Methane
Combustion
Lignin Heat
Figure 3.  Schematic representation of the biorefinery of orange peel.
orange peel treatment steps, in which the residues obtained
one, according to the definition of a biorefinery facility.
Declaration of interest
The authors are very grateful to the Ministry of Science and
Innovation, Spanish Government, for funding Jose Angel Siles
Lopez (Grant No. BES-2006-14074, Project No. CTM2005-
01293. Co-financed by the European Social Fund).
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