ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Florida, the nation’s largest citrus producer, each year creates about 8 million tons of orange peel waste that mostly goes to cattle feed.

But researchers at a Fort Lauderdale-based company want to convert some of the peels into methanol, which can be used as an energy source.

Ener1 Inc. is working on a $1.1 million project to convert the hydrogen-rich gas released from citrus peels for use in fuel cells at a model interstate rest stop.

“It’s a big part of the waste here in the state of Florida,” said Pankaj Dhingra, president of Ener1. The nonprofit Florida Hydrogen Initiative Inc. has given Ener1 a $550,000 grant to help complete the project by next year.

The goal is to create “a road show” for millions of motorists to demonstrate the potential of hydrogen energy, not to mention get rid of citrus peel waste.

Most of Florida’s oranges are processed into juice. Eventually, Ener1 researchers hope to try using other forms of waste, such as trash from Orlando’s theme parks, to create the methanol.

“We need something besides gasoline and this is one way to get there,” said Jim Griffiths, the 90-year-old managing director at Citrus Grower Associates Inc. “If orange waste can be helpful, that’s great.”

Central Florida has been the location of several such hydrogen-power projects.

In February, Gov. Jeb Bush and Ford Motor Co. executive Bill Ford helped introduce the state’s first hydrogen fueling station for buses. The buses will be used to shuttle car rental customers at Orlando International Airport and tourists at the NASA visitor center.

Last May, Ford and BP America selected Florida as one of three sites nationwide to demonstrate hydrogen fuel cell cars.

So far, Ener1 researchers have created 1-kilowatt and 150-watt fuel cell prototypes. They hope to have a 10-kilowatt fuel cell completed over the next 18 months for the rest stop.

If all goes according to plan, five fuel cells, each the size of three car batteries, will be used at the as-yet unbuilt rest stop.

The methanol will be extracted from the orange peels through a distillation process and stored in an offsite tank. The fuel cells will be resupplied with methanol every two or three days.