Pomelo is a large citrus fruit commonly grown in Southeast and East Asia. It has a very thick peel, which is typically discarded, resulting in a considerable amount of food waste. In a new study published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers explore ways to utilize waste pomelo-peel biomass to develop tools that can power small electric devices and monitor biomechanical motions.

There are two main parts of the pomelo peel—a thin outer layer and a thick, white inner layer. The white part is soft and feels like a sponge when you push on it. Some people have used pomelo peels to extract compounds for essential oils or pectin, but we wanted to take advantage of the natural porous, spongy structure of the peel.

If we can upcycle the peel to higher-value products instead of simply throwing it away, we can not only reduce waste from pomelo production, consumption, and juice making, but also create more value from food and agricultural waste, said study co-author Yi-Cheng Wang, an assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois.