African Scientist Hacks Mangosteen Rinds to Create Supercapacitors for Devices

African Currents · Jul 14, 2025 · 30m

Globally, an estimated 931 million tonnes of food are lost or wasted each year—roughly one-third of all food produced, according to South Africa’s Government Gazette (2023). If other African countries matched South Africa’s 30 percent peel ratio and 10 percent conversion efficiency, the continent—home to tens of millions of tonnes of annual fruit harvests—could generate hundreds of thousands of tonnes of peel-derived activated carbon every year. At that scale, Africa could launch a domestically owned supercapacitor industry, transforming orchards and market waste into a cornerstone of its…