USDA labs convert almond waste to beer, plastic and fuel

In California, USDA researchers are converting almond hulls and waste that is otherwise discarded into useful products like bioplastics, beer and biofuels. With two pounds of hulls for every pound of almonds produced, farmers would love to be able to use or sell the hulls. The hulls could be used in a digester to make methane, the sugar extracted to make ethanol or hard cider or beer, and added to bioplastics to strengthen them.

The world’s largest grower of tree nuts, The Wonderful Company, plans on building a biofuel plant to convert almond shells to renewable diesel. Worldcentric and Full Cycle Bioplastics, which make compostable dinnerware, are working with the USDA researchers to improve biobased forks so they can withstand boiling water and incorporating the almond material into compostable products.