The National Watermelon Association is still working on making fuel from melons.

Executive Director Bob Morrissey says they still believe there is a future in the idea, which we first reported on here in September 2006. “We still have to do some homework on the logistics portion and the economics portion,” he said.

“Our initial idea is to get a test project going in Florida and a test project going in Georgia and see how those work and then we can branch out to other producing states,” Morrissey said, adding that it may not work out, but at least they are trying to see if it will.

The association has been doing some research with USDA, the University of Georgia and an ethanol plant in Florida to use the estimated 700 million pounds of watermelons that are wasted each year for ethanol production.

Listen to the story from USDA Radio News reporter Gary Crawford.
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/audio/melon-fuel.mp3]