By combining coffee oil produced from used coffee grounds with other oils and fats to make a
mixture called B20, Bio-bean, has created a biodiesel when combined with diesel which can be
used as fuel for vehicles.

The British-based startup has partnered with Shell to produce the biofuel, as reported by USA
Today. According to shell, the 6,000 liters of coffee oil the companies have produced so far
could provide a bus with energy for a year.

Three years ago, Bio-bean was able to set up the process and technology as well as collaborate
with coffee chains and instant coffee companies to use their coffee waste for the biofuel,
through an European Environmental prize of $530,360.

According to Bio-bean co-founder, Arthur Kay, if all of the waste produced by the city of London
daily was used to create biofuel, it would save emissions equal to 7,675 bus trips around the
world. These numbers are theoretical, USA Today reported.

With a capacity to process 50,000 tons of coffee grounds per year in their factory, Shell said
one-third of London’s bus network could be sustained on the amount of coffee oil produced. The
innovation comes at a time when London has plans to convert the city’s transport system into
one that is emission-free by 2050.

The coffee-based biodiesel does have negative aspects, as do most of it’s kind, such as
emissions, which cannot be completely removed with the use of diesel. It also releases crude
glycerol in the conversion from coffee grounds to oil, which researchers from the New Delhi
Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology were able to convert into hydrogen gas as a fuel.

(Picture courtesy: Island Diesel)