Starbucks to fuel cars?

Coffee is well known for being able to power the economic engine that is the global workforce.  It might fill the tank of an individual but certainly won’t fill your car.  Beyond compost are there any alternative uses for coffee grounds?

New research at the University of Nevada shows used coffee grounds can be repurposed into biodiesel to power vehicles, trains, and even airplanes.  The waste from Starbucks alone could turn into 3M gallons of fuel and $8M in profits.

One of the main limits to the acceptance of biodiesel as an alternative fuel is its price premium above regular diesel. To bring the price of biodiesel down, the industry uses as much waste material from other industries as possible to make it — such as used fryer oil and animal fats from poultry processing.

Coffee grounds are actually about 15% oil.  The research team said that it concludes that the coffee-ground oil feedstock would cost between $0.45 to $1.84 less than feedstocks such as corn or soy, is more stable than comparable feedstock oils, and the grounds can be further processed into fuel for pellet stoves.

Given that Starbucks (NasdaqGS: SBUX) generates 210 million pounds of spent coffee grounds per year in the US, the researchers calculate that it could amount to almost 3 million gallons of biodiesel and 89,000 tons of fuel pellets.   Should gas prices reverse direction and move back over $4 per gallon then the researchers estimate as much as $8M in profits from Starbuck’s waste alone.

One of the main drivers for adoption of biodiesel is energy security. This means that a nation’s dependence on oil is reduced, and substituted with use of locally available sources, such as coal, gas, or renewable sources.

Biodiesel production capacity is growing rapidly, with an average annual growth rate from 2002-2006 of over 40%. For the year 2006, the latest for which actual production figures could be obtained, total world biodiesel production was about 5-6 million tons (over 80% of this production comes from Europe).

Sources: Gas 2.0, Wikipedia, Ecogeeek, Biofuels Digest

Scientists discover diesel fuel producing fungus

American scientists have discovered a fungus deep in the Patagonian rainforest that makes biodiesel as part of its natural lifecycle. The fungus is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel sources.

According to team member Prof. Gary Strobel of Montana State University, “The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel than anything we use at the moment.”

Calling the fungus’ output “myco-diesel,” Gary Strobel and his collaborators describe their initial observations in the November issue of Microbiology.

The fungus proved to have another advantage, it grows on a tree’s cellulose. “When crops are used to make biofuel they have to be processed before they can be turned into useful compounds by microbes,” said Strobel. “G. roseum can make myco-diesel directly from cellulose, the main compound found in plants and paper. This means if the fungus was used to make fuel, a step in the production process could be skipped.”

Cellulose is an indigestible part of a plant that binds the plant and allows it to stand. When treated with specific enzymes the cellulose turns into sugar; microbes are then used to ferment this sugar creating an ethanol that can be used as fuel.

“We were very excited to discover that the fungus can digest cellulose. Although the fungus makes less myco-diesel when it feeds on cellulose compared to sugars, new developments in fermentation technology and genetic manipulation could help improve the yield,” said Strobel. “In fact, the genes of the fungus are just as useful as the fungus itself in the development of new biofuels.  We were totally surprised to learn that it was making a plethora of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. The results were totally unexpected and very exciting and almost every hair on my arms stood on end!”

Patagonia is a geographic region containing the southernmost portion of South America. Located in Argentina and Chile, it comprises the Andes mountains to the west and south, and plateau and low plains to the east.

The biodiesel generating fungus grows in the Ulmo tree, a species of tree in the Cunoniaceae family. It is found in Chile and Argentina. It is threatened by logging and habitat loss. The natural habitat is along the Andes Range from 38 to 43° lat.S, and up to 700 meters (2300 ft) above sea level.

Mongabay, Gas2.0, Image from Patagonia Photo Library