Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Waste Coffee Grounds Offer New Source of Biodiesel

Posted by timothy on from the as-if-you-needed-another-reason dept.

Julie188 writes "Researchers in Nevada are reporting that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks. Their study has been published online in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Growers produce more than 16 billion pounds of coffee around the world each year. Scientists estimate that spent coffee grounds can potentially add 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the world's fuel supply."

3 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Amen by justinlee37 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    You said it brother.

  2. How much is 340 million gallons of diesel? by Noonian · · Score: 1, Redundant

    To put everything in context :

    1 barrel of oil (bbl) is 42 gallons, so 340 million gallons of oil is a little over 8 million bbl.

    How many bbl do we use in the US? According the the CIA world factbook, the US consumed 20.8 million bbl/day in 2005. (It's almost certainly higher today.) That means we've just found enough oil to replace about 2/5ths of one day's worth of oil demand in the US.

    It's a baby step in the right direction...

  3. How many gallons of fuels will be used... by Grendel_Prime · · Score: 0, Redundant

    To haul all those coffee grounds around? Could we get an adjusted number instead of that "340 Million Gallons"? It doesn't all smell like cake from where I sit.