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LONDON BUSES TO BE POWERED BY COFFEE GROUNDS

 

As part of ongoing efforts to reduce pollution in the capital, London’s buses are set to utilise a new source of fuel, Coffee grounds. Thanks to the collaboration between Bio-Bean, Shell and Argent Energy, double Decker will be filled with a B2O Biofuel created by blending oil extracted from coffee waste with diesel.

So far, they’ve produced enough to power one London bus for a year, but Londoners drink 20 millions cups of coffee a day, it could provide enough oil to power a third of transport for London’s entire network.  The team have so far produced enough coffee oil to power one bus for a year.

Transport for London says it has been turning to biofuel to curb carbon emissions, trialling a fuel made with used cooking oil from the catering industry.

“It’s a great example of what can be done when we start to re-imagine waste as an untapped resource,” bio-bean founder Arthur Kay said.

The company said the average Londoner drinks 2.3 cups of coffee a day, producing over 200,000 tonnes of waste a year. “It collects waste grounds from coffee shops, offices and factories, saving 6.8 tonnes of CO2 emissions for every tonne recycled. The beans are then dried and processed to extract coffee oil, which is blended with other fats and oils to create a 20 percent bio component. That biocomponent is then mixed with mineral diesel to create a B20 bio-fuel,” Shell said.

 

The biofuel, without modification, is then placed directly into select London buses. The rollout of the new bio-fuel comes after a Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand’s report on the climate risks to coffee, which found that the total area suitable for growing coffee will be halved by 2050 if global warming goes unchecked.

London’s love for coffee could help power a third of the capital’s bus network.

By: Devanshi Somvanshi

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