Researchers from the University of Sydney have done just that by developing a method that uses durian and jackfruit waste to create energy stores for rapid electricity charging.

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering academic Associate Professor Vincent Gomes explains how he and the research team managed to turn the tropical fruits into super-capacitors. Their findings were published this week in the Journal of Energy Storage.

How does it work?

"Using durian and jackfruit purchased from a market, we converted the fruits' waste portions (biomass) into super-capacitors that can be used to store electricity efficiently," said Gomes.

"Using a non-toxic and non-hazardous green engineering method that used heating in water and freeze drying of the fruits' biomass, the durian and jackfruit were transformed into stable carbon aerogels—an extremely light and porous synthetic material used for a range of applications.

"Carbon aerogels make great super-capacitors because they are highly porous. We then used the fruit-derived aerogels to make electrodes which we tested for their energy storage properties, which we found to be exceptional."