There are good reasons to drink coffee. For instance, you can start your day with a cup of a Caffè Americano and you can have a conversation with friends drinking cappuccino. There is one more reason which makes coffee the next big thing.
Researchers claim that we can use coffee waste as a fuel. Specifically, it could be extracted oil from it and turn it into biodiesel.
There are companies which already have adopted this process. Plus, it is environmentally friendly, a viable alternative to conventional fuels, and it could be the solution for the future generations. However, it is a complicated and long procedure.
Simplified process
Scientists at the Lancaster University, have developed a simpler process.
According to Ms. Vesna Najdanovic-Visak, they have created a method which makes the in situ transesterification – extraction, and reaction – more efficient. They have achieved this in only one step.
This means that companies can save money and time. The produced fuel can go into fuel tanks or be mixed with other biofuels. Moreover, coffee waste can produce biomass pellets and biochemicals.
It’s already happening
Companies already take #Spent coffee grounds from restaurants and cafeterias for composting. London’s transport system signed a contract with companies in order to use B20 fuel blend, which is made from waste products, including cooking oil and tallow from the meat processing trade.
The goal is the reduction in CO2 emissions
Bio-bean, a London based company, is the first company in the world to industrialise the process of recycling waste coffee grounds into advanced biofuels and biochemicals.
They collect spent coffee grounds from coffee shops, offices, transport hubs and coffee factories, recycling them into viable and high-performance products which displace conventional fuels and chemicals.
The founder of bio-bean, Arthur Kay, said to the Evening Standard that he wants to revolutionise transport. The fuel from the spent coffee grounds is able to reduce CO2 emissions dramatically.
Imagine what would happen if all Londoners gave their coffee waste from their weekly rubbish to these companies? According to the British Coffee Association, in the UK we drink approximately 55 million cups of coffee per day.
In London alone, the amount of coffee waste is said to be around 200,000 tones a year.
Aris Andrianopoulos
