Bruno M.
Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:36:14 -0800
FYI grts Bruno M. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://news.rgj.com//apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS02/801230438
Imagine your car buzzed on coffee Lenita Powers ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL January 23, 2008 In the near future, coffee-lovers could help the environment whenever they buy those lattes and cappuccinos, thanks to a Reno professor's discovery of a new source for biodiesel fuel. The epiphany came to Manoranjan Misra in a cold cup of coffee. "One night, I had left a cup of coffee out, and the next morning, I saw this thin layer of oil around the edges," said Misra, a chemical and metallurgical professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He discovered the oil was triglyceride. With the help of post-doctoral scholar Susanta K. Mohapatra and graduate student Narasimha Kondamudi, Misra developed a patent- pending process to extract the oil from spent coffee grounds to produce a high-quality biodiesel fuel. The 59-year-old researcher said almost 3 million gallons of biodiesel could be produced annually from the more than 200 million pounds of coffee grounds Starbucks alone generates each year in the United States. The coffee-grounds alternative fuel has a number of advantages over biodiesel produced from corn or soy, Misra said. He said it will be cheaper, only $1.06 to $1.33 a gallon compared with corn and soy, which is $1.78 to $2.90. It's also more stable, giving it a longer "shelf life," he said. After the triglyceride is extracted, the coffee grounds can be used a third time: compressed into pellets to heat homes with pellet-burning stoves. And the coffee grounds-based fuel doesn't add to higher food costs and world hunger that using corn and soy does. "People making biodiesel out of corn and soy is a big issue because the prices for those things go up, and that has socioeconomic impacts," Misra said. "Our objective is to take waste material and make biodiesel fuel without taking the food from the plate." Brazil has made biodiesel fuel from whole coffee beans, but Misra said his process is the first to use spent coffee grounds. He said Nevada's mining industry, with its huge vehicles, would be a prime target for the cheaper fuel, which could be available within two years. Jane Feldman, energy chair for the Toyaibe Chapter of the Sierra Club, said the coffee-ground idea is worth exploring. "But whenever you take municipal waste and convert it into energy, you have to ensure you aren't creating more toxins that are released into the atmosphere," Feldman said. Misra doesn't believe that will be a problem. He said a laboratory test of the biodiesel fuel will be conducted soon and then tested in an engine at Bio Diesel Solutions Inc. in Sparks. Right now, the only thing Misra said his new biodiesel fuel exudes into the air is the smell of coffee -- stale coffee. Tina Nappe, another Sierra Club member, questioned whether using coffee grounds would be cost-effective in Nevada or only in areas where coffee houses are close together so the grounds could be collected easily. "The whole transportation issue would have to be worked out to make sure it's not an environmental trade-off," Nappe said. "It sounds like there's still some work to be done, but it is an intriguing idea." A spokesman for Starbucks said the company doesn't have enough information about Misra's work to comment about whether it would provide grounds for his biodiesel fuel. Starbucks began a "Grounds for Your Garden" recycling program in 1995, which provides residents with spent coffee grounds in recycled bags on a first-come, first-served basis. ======================================================== -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.10/1240 - Release Date: 23/01/2008 17:47 _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/