New way of turning coffee into fuel

Over the years we’ve seen a number of intrepid entrepreneurs try their hand at turning coffee waste into fuel.

Well, today, we can add another group to that list; so please step forward researchers from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology!

Scientists based at the South Korean research university are believed to have uncovered a very simple way that enables coffee waste to store methane.

The process – which is set to be officially unveiled in the upcoming issue of the journal Nanotechnology – sees the leftover coffee grounds get submerged in a mixture of sodium hydroxide before being heated to around 800°C.

The result is a stable carbon compound that can then be used as a biofuel and it takes less than a day to create.

Unsurprisingly, Christian Kemp, the author of the paper, said that inspiration in developing an expedient method of turning waste grounds into fuel came from sitting around and drinking coffee with his peers.

“[I] looked at the coffee grounds and thought: ‘I wonder if we can use this for methane storage?’”, he is quoted as saying.

“The big thing,” Kemp continues, “is [that] we are decreasing the fabrication time and we are using cheap materials.

“The waste material is free compared to all the metals and expensive organic chemicals needed in other processes.

“In my opinion this is a far easier way.”

Coffee fuel is increasingly becoming vogue in the world of green energy.

From being a novelty source of energy and the subject of a handful of World Record attempts, the process of powering things by leftover coffee grounds is slowly becoming big business. Recently, a number of train stations in London signed up to a scheme in which used grounds would be collected from cafes and sent to a green energy company to be repurposed.

The times and the energy sources, they are a changin’.