Peanut Hulls: Their Properties and Potential Uses

Peanut hulls are already used for poultry litter, filler in artificial fireplace logs, and roughage in cattle feed. Potential additional uses, most of which have not been systematically investigated, are pet litter, mushroom-growing medium, carrier for pesticides and fertilizers, mulch, fuel, absorbent for molasses, fillers, drycleaner, absorbent for oil spills, anticaking material, floor-sweeping compound, foundry-sand component, sealant in oil-drilling muds, metal polish, and charcoal briquets and activated carbon. The principal advantages recommending hulls for many uses are high absorbency (a method for determining water absorption is given), chemical inertness, concentrated supply at shelling plants, and low cost. Their principal disadvantage, bulkiness, which results in high transportation costs, seems to limit their potential to the development of markets near the source of supply.