Future of urban mobility: Coffee-powered buses

The idea came from Arthur Kay, entrepreneur responsible for the startup biobean, whose job is to use coffee waste to produce liquid fuel. Coffee biofuel would be used primarily in London's famous red double-decker buses. Trademark of the city and England.

The first demonstrations of coffee-powered vehicles should be presented by the company in the coming weeks.

The coffee powered buses

There is no doubt that caffeine is an important stimulant for a large part of humanity. There are even those who often say: "No coffee, no work", such is the importance of the drink as human fuel.

Being used in urban public transport is a novelty yet to come. and how is a commodity produced on a large scale and consumed all over the world, there is no shortage of raw material for Biobean's new biofuel. The company already has four products based on coffee waste in your portfolio:

• coffee logs: A kind of sustainable charcoal to be used in fireplaces, barbecues and stoves;
• biomass pellets: An alternative to wood and coal used for heating and power generation;
• Biodiesel: Liquid fuel produced from coffee waste, in the final stage of development;
• biochemists: Biochemicals for various commercial use. Still in the research and development phase;

The first coffee-powered buses should be displayed between the end of June and the beginning of July.

How coffee biodiesel is produced

The method for producing liquid fuel from coffee is patented. It is known, however, that the biochemical production process uses the so-called “hexane extraction”.

About 15 to 20% vegetable oil is extracted, with the rest of the coffee mass being transformed into pellets and briquettes. According to Kay, the UK consumes something like 500 tonnes of coffee every year. If everything were used for energy production, it would be enough to supply a city like Manchester.

Coffee biodiesel in Brazil

Brazil is a common reference when it comes to biofuels. Sugarcane ethanol was a pioneer in the area and is already consolidated as an alternative and competitive fuel. A not inconsiderable part of the country's electrical energy also comes from cogeneration made with sugarcane biomass.

But coffee has also been used as a raw material here in Brazil. Although there is no record that I have been commercially released, as Biobean now does, a 2011 USP research also developed coffee-based fuel. The University of Nevada was another institution to develop diesel based products from the coffee production chain (see here). Is it possible for a city like London to have its famous coffee-powered buses? Technologies for this are already maturing, it remains to be seen if the company is commercially viable and if it will actually succeed.

References: Will buses be run on Coffee?