The local government in Valencia, Spain, may use oranges to make as much as 37.5 million liters of ethanol for use as fuel, an official said on Monday.

Plants in Valencia which crush oranges for use in cordials currently produce 240,000 tons of orange waste each year, and a new plant will bring the waste to 500,000 tons, Esteban Gonzalez, Valencia's land and housing official, said.

"Experiments in California show that this could be enough to produce 37.5 million liters of fuel ethanol," said Gonzalez at a climate change conference. "We have a car plant and we have the oranges," he said.

Some four million tons of oranges are grown in the region each year.

Source: Xinhua