Coffee grounds could be used to power London buses after the oil company Shell signed a deal to fund an inventor who dreamt up the idea at university. The process devised by Arthur Kay, co-founder and chief executive of a company called Bio-bean, creates a fuel that is blended with regular diesel, has lower emissions and does not require engines to be modified. The company collects and processes 50,000 tonnes of grounds a year and the blended fuel can save 6.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions for every tonne of recycled coffee used. It hopes to take on 50 more employees. The idea came to Mr Kay when he was designing a coffee shop during his architecture degree course at University College London, which he entered into a Shell innovation competition. His research team were then given the use of three double-deckers as part of a three-year study to test the fuel.
Times 18th Nov 2017 read more »