London Double Decker Buses To Be Powered By Coffee Waste To Cut Diesel Emissions

British startup bio-bean has partnered with Shell and Argent Energy to create a coffee-based biofuel that will be used in London’s diesel buses.

The company has produced 6,000 liters of coffee oil for the pilot project with London’s transportation authority which is enough to help power the equivalent of one city bus for a year.

The startup collects used coffee grounds from cafes, restaurants and factories, and then transports them to its recycling facility. There, the grounds are dried before coffee oil is extracted.

The coffee oil which makes up 20 percent of the final fuel blend, will then be mixed with traditional diesel to create B20 biofuel which can be used in diesel buses without any modification.

According to bio-bean, the average Londoner drinks 2.3 cups of coffee a day, translating to over 200,000 tonnes of waste a year.

Bio-bean estimates that Britain produces 500,000 tonnes of coffee grounds a year, most of which are discarded in landfills where they can emit harmful greenhouse gases.

This scheme is the first time Transport for London has put coffee-based biofuel in its buses, after previously testing waste from cooking oils on its 9,500 buses.