Coffee Can Fuel The World

By Avishay Artsy on Thursday, December 11, 2008.

As part of our series “the next green thing,” we’re always looking for new and innovative sources of energy besides the traditional fossil fuels. Well, today we learned that you need to look no further than your local coffeeshop.

Just as we at Word of Mouth rely on our morning jolt of caffeine to bring you a daily brew of new ideas and trends, researchers in Nevada say those coffee grounds can also be used as biofuel. Given that more than 16 million pounds of coffee are produced each year, those waste grounds could produce about 340 million gallons of biofuel, equivalent to roughly 8 million barrels of oil. And the researchers say that, yes, the fuel would smell like coffee. [via TreeHugger]

(Photo by Lali Masriera)

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This is a novel idea, but the true potential has to be considerably less than the 8 million barrels of oil mentioned. Think about where all those coffee grounds are located. They aren't in a few places where they could be gathered up and processed, but in millions of locations across nearly every square mile in the nation. Collecting all those grounds, transporting them to processing plants and then processing them will have a signfiicant energy cost. While it might be possible to gather up large quantities from places like Dunkin Donuts (by using the return routes for their delivery trucks) the vast majority of places that produce coffee grounds won't be able to efficiently get them to a processor.

When ideas like this come up, someone should always ask: "What's the net energy after all the steps in the process are included?"

Submitted by Paul Doscher on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 17:13.

But I do agree with the above poster that all things need to be considered beyond the novel idea of converting grounds into fuel. For now I will continue to put mine in the compost heap to fuel and feed my plants next season.

Submitted by Tina in NH on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 10:16.

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Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show looks at our fascinating and ever-changing world, and puts the latest ideas under a microscope. Word of Mouth investigates everything from science and technology, to health and the environment, to new trends in popular culture. The show airs Monday through Thursday at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.