Potato
Definition
Historical
Indigenous to Condor Island , Andes region ; Following the Roman-British deforestation of Ireland, potato became staple crop of the island. Irish Potato Famine : less a climate collapse than a deliberate policy around logistics of British Empire
Production
Application
Famously the source for Vodka.
In the potato processing industry, 50% of the potatoes are generally wasted. However, the percentage varies for different potato processing plants, e.g., potato processing industry creates 10% of waste potato pulp, 5%–20% cull potatoes, and 15%–40% peel. In the potato chips industry, on the other hand, 18% of the production is starchy waste.
Current ethanol production depends on first generation crops, such as sugar cane, corn, wheat, cassava, and is commercialized globally with approximately 650 plants with a total capacity of 100 billion liters. Corn-based ethanol represents the major fraction of ethanol production with 60 billion liters, followed by sugar cane-based ethanol with 20 billion liters in 2012.
Uses of the first generation crops for ethanol production raise concerns over limited agricultural land and water, as well as other environmental issues in regards to land use. Although second and third generation feedstocks, lignocellulosic biomass, and algae, respectively, have been considered as alternatives to the first generation crops, ethanol production from these feedstocks is not cost-competitive yet. Therefore, the agro-industrial wastes for ethanol production have been considered as carbon source.
Izmirlioglu G, Demirci A. Enhanced Bio-Ethanol Production from Industrial Potato Waste by Statistical Medium Optimization. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2015; 16(10):24490-24505. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms161024490