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Coffee Can Fuel The World
By Avishay Artsy on Thursday, December 11, 2008.
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) About usWord 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. Contact usSay what you want to say. How you want to say it. We want to hear from you. Search usPodcastWord of Mouth is on the move! Sign up for our podcast and take the show wherever you go.
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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?"
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.