A NOTTINGHAM student has designed a way of using bananas to produce cooking fuel. Joel Chaney was alarmed at how the large part of the fruit, which is grown in Africa, is allowed to rot.

So he has now developed a method of turning what is left of bananas – the skin, leaves and stems – into briquettes for cooking. He believes his discovery could be an answer to the shortage of firewood which plagues poorer parts of Africa.

"A big problem in the developing world is firewood," said Joel, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham's Faculty of Engineering.

"Huge areas of land are deforested every year, which leads to the land being eroded. People need fuel to cook and stay warm, but they can't afford the more expensive types, like gas."

Around two million tons of bananas are grown each year, but the fruit is only a small part of what is produced.

As part of his studies, and under the guidance of supervisor Dr Mike Clifford, Joel came up with the briquettes scheme. He firstly mashes the banana skins and leaves into a pulp using a hand-operated meat mincer.

He then uses sawdust to create a mouldable material, though in African countries like Rwanda this would be exchanged for sun-dried banana stems.

The pulp is then compressed into briquette shapes before being baked in an oven at 105C. In Africa, the oven part could be changed for just leaving the briquettes to dry in the sun.

Joel says that after being dried, the briquettes form an ideal fuel for cooking. He has tested this himself, cooking banana fritters.

Joel said using this method would provide a big boost to people in the Third World – women can spend four or five hours a day just collecting firewood, he said.

"They could spend this time doing other things, even generating an income. Using waste to create fuel is key to sustainable development."

Dr Clifford, associate professor at the Faculty of Engineering, said the bananas experiment was one of a number of studies being done into the creation of fuel.