Latte for work? Car’puccino to the rescue
Ever wondered if you and your car could use the same fuel to rev up. No, I am not suggesting that you consume gasoline, but the other way round. Yes, you read that right. Caffeine is the new biofuel on the block. Scientists have linked coffee to improving cognition, curing Alzheimer’s, and even curing cancer, apart from helping you to pull all-nighters if need be. So, why not use it to run a Bugatti?
The concept of biofuels is not alien to us. Since the beginning of the 20th century, we have successfully turned waste ranging from veggies, salt water and even poop into biofuels. There are several instances where cars could run miles on them. But, only a few of them have been commercial successful and most of them constitute Carbon, the elixir of the fuel world. Can coffee, elixir of the corporate world, come to rescue?
One large Carpuccino please
We are all guilty of letting our coffees go too cold, reheating it and letting it go cold once again. Did you ever wonder what that slight sheen on top of that poor coffee is? That’s a result of the natural oils in coffee. In fact, when coffee is dried and converted into pellets, it allows air to move through as it burns.
This leftover / waste from coffee has given birth to the Carpuccino, a £400 1988 Volkswagen, designed by the team behind the BBC science show Bang Goes The Theory. For every mile, it need around 56 cups of espresso, making it a kilo of ground coffee for every three miles, with a top speed of 60 mph. Unfortunately, this means Carpuccino will cost about 50 times more than gasoline.
Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee is consumed everyday across the world and that means over 10 million tonnes of waste from the coffee grounds per annum. Come to think of it, there is unseen wastage in the coffee powder that goes into conjuring our tall cup of Joe / Starbucks. What if we could turn all this waste into a commercially viable biofuel?
UK pioneering commercialization of coffee oil
That’s exactly what a few companies are doing in order to reduce the world’s carbon footprint. Argent Energy (UK’s premium BioDiesel producer) used coffee oil to create a B20 biofuel that is 80% coffee oil. This was then mixed with diesel and then added to the London bus fuel supply chain.
While the commercial success has largely been limited to the public transportation in London, Arthur Kay was one of the first entrepreneurs to launch a consumer product. He set up Bio-Bean in 2013 with this exact motto to turn coffee grounds into an affordable alternative for the regular consumer.
At Bio-Bean, they recycle the good old coffee wastage — the grounds are sifted, dried, evaporated, extracted until the coffee oil is achieved.
Arthur works with waste collection companies who gets them used grounds from across factories, local cafes, and restaurant chains. 6000 liters of coffee oil has been produced back in 2017.
Why really waste the waste?
As the world is gearing to own more automobiles, we must be cautious of our ever-declining fuel repositories. At the same time, we cannot turn edibles into fuel as it creates another crisis (of food) while attempting to solve one. The best way would be to leverage wastage in a new way, making sure the least possible carbon footprint is achieved. We must take inspiration from UK / Bio-Bean and get hyper efficient at waste management. After all, there is nothing that can be truly classified as waste because waste in one process can be used as the main ingredient in another process like animal feces is the best possible manure for lands, like oil is the byproduct of fossils, like grounded coffee is the latest biofuel. So, what’s the next super food to keep the wheels running?
About the author: Manisha is a software developer by the day and a bibliophile by night — and writing is one of her superpowers. She is a believer in the power of thinking and considers coffee to be her only true love.
