The man putting coffee into fuel
Arthur Kay set up bio-bean, a company turning waste coffee grounds into biofuels. Five years on, with the support of Shell through its #makethefuture campaign, his company launched two biofuel products – including one used in some London buses. He talks to Inside Energy.
How do you make biofuel from coffee?
If you look at the top of a cup of coffee that has been left for a while, you'll see this thin layer - a very slight sheen on top. That's essentially natural oils within coffee that are being released. It is that oil that we are using to help make biofuel.
In the UK we drink an estimated 55 million cups of coffee a day1. By our calculations that produces more than 500,000 tonnes of waste coffee grounds each year. Much of this would otherwise end up at landfill sites.
At bio-bean we work with waste collection companies to collect those used grounds from factories, local cafes, busy train stations, offices and chains like Costa Coffee.
It’s important to us to use existing waste collection and recycling companies because that minimises the number of extra journeys needed. It makes financial sense for companies too, because as well as being environmentally-friendly, it saves them money as it is cheaper than sending the waste grounds to landfill.
Once the grounds arrive at our purpose-built coffee recycling factory the magic begins. The grounds are sifted and dried before a process of evaporation extracts the coffee oil from the grounds.
We managed to produce 6,000 litres of coffee oil. This was used for an ambitious biodiesel project we undertook in 2017 with Shell.
It worked like this. Our partner, Argent Energy used our coffee oil to create a B20 biofuel. B20 means that there are 20% biocomponents - like fats, oils and agricultural products, including our coffee oil. That is mixed with diesel before being added to the London bus fuel supply chain. Which means our coffee oil was used in a select number of regular red buses driving around London.
Bio-bean extracted 6,000 litres of coffee oil from waste coffee grounds, which was used to help power some of London's buses.
How did it feel to see London buses running on a biofuel you helped to create?
I was thrilled and proud. A huge amount of research, engineering and business development went into this project.
It's now almost five years since I first talked about the idea of creating a biofuel from coffee. Back then, Shell supported me through its LiveWIRE programme. There were just two people on the team then. Now there are nearly 50 of us at bio-bean, and this time around, Shell’s #makethefuture initiative is behind us, through its work supporting energy-engaged entrepreneurs and businesses.
It has been a long process, but an exciting time scaling-up the technology and expanding the business as well as the team.
We demonstrated that we can get to the point where coffee oil can be used in a biodiesel. That was a special moment for bio-bean and for me. It shows that it's technically-feasible, economically-viable and that it can have a positive environmental impact.
It's all very well scientists and engineers coming up with this idea in the laboratory, but through the London bus network, and with partners like Shell and Argent Energy we demonstrated how it can work in reality.
The next challenge is to scale-up from a technical demonstration. We think we have the opportunity to take this forward on a larger scale.
There is going to have to be a real divergence of energies in transport. Electrification will of course be a big part in that, but liquid fuels will too, and it’s important that we find ways of reducing the CO2 emissions of those fuels.
When did you first think of the idea?
I was still a student studying architecture in 2013 when the idea came to me. I was on a project designing a coffee shop of the future. All the other students were doing lovely drawings of the building itself and the cladding and those sorts of things, but I got very interested in the sheer volume of waste coffee that was coming from the building.
The thing about coffee is that you drink from the cup and there's virtually no waste in the bottom when you finish. I'd never really thought about the waste that is produced.
It's different to if you eat a banana, and you throw the skin away, you realise there is waste because you actively throw it away.
With coffee, the waste is basically invisible because the coffee shop or factory deal with the waste. Even if you have a cup of instant coffee, you don't necessarily think about the waste that has been produced to get the coffee in your cup.
Watch: How coffee and a bright idea are helping power buses
Title: How coffee is helping to power buses
Duration: 60 seconds
Description:
What happens when you combine a bright idea and a lot of coffee waste? Discover how bio-bean, with the support of Shell, is using coffee waste to help power buses.
How coffee is helping to power buses Transcript
[Background music]
Emotive, gradually rising music plays.
[Video footage]
A public bus door opens
[Video footage]
People walk onto the bus
[Text displays]
Coffee and a bright idea are helping power buses
[Video footage]
Hands washing a portafilter, steaming milk
[Text displays]
The world drinks a lot of coffee
[Voice over]
A man’s voice says “the world drinks a lot of coffee”
[Video footage]
Steamed milk is being poured into a cup of espresso, cuts to a woman bringing a coffee cup up to her mouth to drink, someone else sitting on a bus drinking coffee
[Text displays]
That creates a lot of waste
[Voice over]
A man’s voice says “that creates a lot of waste”
[Video footage]
A man standing with a coffee cup outside a London bus, he walks onto the bus and sits down in a seat
[Background music]
The tempo of the music increases
[Video footage]
A barista cleans a portafilter of coffee grounds
[Text displays]
London alone produces
[Video footage]
A bag of waste coffee grounds displaying ‘bio-bean powered by coffee’ logo is carried
[Text displays]
200,000 tonnes* of waste coffee grounds every year
[Video footage]
A man sits alone in the back row of a London bus and speaks to camera
[Text displays]
Arhur Kay, Founder bio-bean
[Voice over]
I thought, what if we could do something meaningful?
[Text displays]
What if we could do something meaningful with that waste
[Video footage]
Two London buses pass one another on opposite sides of the street. The display on the sides of the bus reads: “Your coffee can now help power buses #makethefuture”
[Video footage]
A close up of the bus wheel is displayed as it drives past
[Text displays]
bio-bean uses waste coffee to help create sustainable biofuels
[Background music]
The tempo of the music increases
[Video footage]
The first bus drives away, and there is a close up of the front light on the bus behind it
[Text displays]
Now that fuel is helping power London buses
[Video footage]
Another bus pulls up to a stop in front of an office building. The display on the sides of the bus reads: “Your coffee can now help power buses #makethefuture”
[Voice over]
It’s not just about using plentiful waste product, it’s about creating
[Video footage]
Back to Arthur Kay sitting in the back row of a bus, speaking to camera
[Voice over]
more resilient cities
[Text displays]
more resilient cities
[Video footage]
A man against a green wall holds up a solar panel
[Text displays]
First Shell helped bring solar power
[Video footage]
Camera pans over a row of solar panels on a roof
[Video footage]
Musical artists Luan Santana and Yemi Alade and Pixie Lott performing on stage
[Text displays]
& music
[Video footage]
A Brazilian flag hanging outsdoors
[Text displays]
To a community in Rio de Janeiro
[Video footage]
A coffee cup with the London skyline cut out above the rim sits on a wooden table
[Text displays]
Your coffee can now help power buses
[Background music]
The background music fades
{Visual transition}
White screen with the Shell logo at the centre. Below the logo, text displays in black letters.
[Text displays]
Search #makethefuture for other bright energy ideas
[Audio]
The Shell mnemonic plays
Other than biofuel, what else is bio-bean producing from coffee?
The first vision I had for the company was to turn waste coffee grounds into biodiesel. This was always our dream, which is why this development is so special. To get there we have produced a variety of other products, including biomass pellets and biomass briquettes - what we call Coffee Logs.
The Coffee Logs have been great at demonstrating the full circle. People drink the coffee, we collect their waste coffee grounds and then provide them back with the logs that they can use to heat their homes. So far, it is the Coffee Logs that our business is built on.
The biodiesel is more of a technical demonstration of what can be done in the future.
What does the future look like for bio-bean?
At the moment, we are focusing on collecting even more waste coffee grounds, building a larger market for our Coffee Logs as well as exploring other potential uses for coffee oil.Initially, we want to expand our operations across the UK. Then we would like to look overseas to Europe and to the USA.
However, it's not just about expanding bio-bean internationally. Ultimately, we want to get the world to think differently about waste. By promoting valuable uses of waste coffee, we hope to encourage others to reconsider what could be achieved with substances we currently consider “waste”.
Arthur Kay spoke to Andrew Wilson
1 Source: British Coffee Association (2017).
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