Waste Coffee Grounds are the new source of biofuel/ biodiesel. In a Nevada research facility researchers discovered that spent coffee grounds are a rich source of renewable biofuel.

Rather than having cars that smell like French fries, we soon will have a much better biofuel aroma choice: Straight up java.

Imagine it: The poorer coffee bean picking rural areas of the world can have a bidding war between coffee drink producers, and a emerging biofuel market.

This biofuel market could also compete with the coffee industry by also selling a competing premade coffee drink product offering.

This eventual reality is not that far off.

The research of the Nevada group was published in American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The American Chemical Society the world’s largest scientific society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. The ACS Publications Division currently publishes 35 leading peer-reviewed journals in the chemical and related sciences, including the flagship Journal of the American Chemical Society, well as Chemical & Engineering News, Society’s weekly news magazine.

This is an online biweekly publication.

According to the article Mano Misra, Susanta Mohapatra, and Narasimharao Kondamudi point of that the major problem with a major transition to biofuel is the availability of a viable feeder stock.

Coffee grounds can be grown sold, spent, and recollected by one means or another to create the new fuel source.

The various modalities that would be implemented or created to do this in a sustainable manner is going to be the challenge of research into the viability of the fuel stock source in the future.

For no wit is a wonderful discovery to lend hope to the growing alternative energy movements transition from a fad accepted by the mainstream to the fuel sources of the mainstream cultures adventure into fads of undiscovered novelty.

The current yearly production of 16 billion gallons of coffee can reasonably produce 340 million gallons of collectible biofuel. This estimate is from spent grounds that coffee shop chains produce currently.

The collection of coffee grounds in not out of the ordinary currently. These grounds are used as soil enhancer and fertilizer around the world. Collecting it for biofuel is not much of a real stretch.

The Nevadaresearchers have already collected a mass quantity of coffee grounds from one world wide chain. They extracted the oil from the grounds, and turned 100% of the oil into biofuel/ biodiesel.

The strong antioxidant nature of coffee makes the biofuel created from it more stable than any other form of biofuel.

Waste solids from the creation of the biodiesel can then also be created into ethanol; or used as compost.

This exciting, savvy and hip research will make spending four or five bucks on a cup of jo an awesome way to save the world. God knows a decent cup of coffee in the morning shouldn’t be a wasteful sin. Somehow we all knew it. And now research into the usefulness of waste coffee grinds proves it. Drink to coffee, save the world!

Canola biodiesel is produced by extracting rapeseed extract. The reason rapeseed extract is called canola comes from the condensed phrase Canadian oilseed low acid.

The word with obvious slang roots caught on with the popularity of this plant variety. Understanding the production of this rich biodiesel fuel source starts with understanding why rapeseed oil is chosen as biodiesel feedstock over other resources.

Rapeseed oil or canola produces more biodiesel per acre that soy. It is chosen as a biodiesel seed crop often due to its content forty three percent extractable oil. Soy only has eighteen percent.

That forty three percent is not a fixed number. The Canola Council of Canada expects the research put into oil extraction research to increase the percent of extractable oil by one point two percent per seed in the next five years.

Canola biodiesel reduces HC and CO better than other sources according to research done for the State of Washington and Idaho that focuses on honing canola growing practices.

The seeds are sown, then harvested from fourteen million acres in Canada alone. On farms within the United States, in regions like Indiana, winter canola has been suggested as the feeder crop of choice form September through June, and soy as the crop for June to September. And in Washington and Idaho canola is suggested as a winter crop alone.

Then these seeds are crushed into meal.

The oil is secreted from the meal mash.

Converting this oil on small scale at home uses the same catalyst production process as it does in large medium and large-scale production.

It’s the same formula used by the fictional characters in the dark fairytale fight club to make soap, and homemade explosives. The actors actually only dramatically recited the process for making biodiesel.

For making batches of Canola biodiesel for commercial sale the industry mixes sodium hydroxide with methanol in an enclosed procedure together. And then mixing that methoxide with the canola or any other feedstock oil, in the same enclosed environment.

Draining off the glycerin, (that can be used to make soap), is followed up by washing the biodiesel, draining water and residue soap, drying, and filtering the batch through at least a ten micron filter.

For commercial producers of canola oil for biodiesel production the chlorophyll in Green Seed Canola has been a problem. The Chlorophyll content is so high that the oxidation stability is reduced, from the high level of photo oxidation.

Slight changes in the formula used as a catalyst have been used to overcome this obstacle. In 2007 research on a different balance of KOH as a catalyst solved the oxidation problem.

Canola oil is not only edible: Canola biodiesel production increases the amount of fuel that is created per acre. Canola places twentieth out of the top fifty resources based on gallons of oil per growing acre. Canola is also in the triple digits at around one hundred twenty one gallons per acre.

Creating biodiesel from canola production cuts down on emissions of greenhouse gases. Canola biodiesel does this in some cases better than other biodiesel oil feedstock resources. The seed has potential to be an even stronger resource in the future as we learn to extract a greater percentage of oil from each seed that will ad up as more gallons per acre of environmentally sensible fuel.

Further Reading:
BE Bioenergy: Biodiesel from Canola Oil

Biodiesel cars range from heavy-duty trucks like those run by the Safeway fleet¹, to the two-seater Trident Iceni² eight speed sports car. These cars run more efficiently on biodiesel.

For example next year the Loremo³ (low resistance model) will be affordable in the European market. The car that will boast an ability to go one hundred fifty miles on a gallon of biodiesel will cost the European consumer fifteen to twenty thousand dollars.

The Loremo is planed to be worked into American markets either in 2010 or 2011 as that years version of GT. Other versions that use different alternate fuel sources are also planned to be sold starting in one of those years. So for around thirty thousand dollars the consumer will be able to pick between fuel sources such as biodiesel, hybrid, and fully electric will be offered at car options. That is unless another fuel source pulls way ahead of biofuel at the new or interim energy source.

These engines are reported to run on biodiesel blends such as B20, or B100 for example. This labeling stands for what percent of the fuel actually is biodiesel. That means that B20 biodiesel is a fuel that is a mixture of twenty percent biodiesel and eighty percent petroleum diesel.

Fleets like the Safeway fleet do not run on B100. The mixture B20 biodiesel is that 20/80 ratio.

Many homemade biodiesel car systems run on B100 throughout the year, B50 in the winter, and also vegetable oil that has been filtered and has gone through the glycerin process another way. Its these projects that are the most interesting.

2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee⁴ has steel fuel lines from the gas tank to the engine. The durable rubber tubes that support the fuel through the rest of the engine are lined with steel. This fuel system is durably manufactured to withstand harsh chemicals without a problem.

Rubber tubes in older cars fall apart under the corrosive strength of the methoxide in biodiesel. So the fuel lines and other tubes that will contain biodiesel are now much more durable than in older cars.

To run biodiesel in an older car, these tubes need to be traded out.

Companies such as Bio- Beetle⁵ are banking their entire marketing strategy on people wanting to rent diesel cars that run on biodiesel.

People who are tired of paying outrageously unaffordable fuel prices need these cars. These cars are designed to run on regular diesel. But everyone knows that he market these cars appeal to is that of the biodiesel enthusiast, mixing biodiesel themselves, and even growing crops for seed oil.

The country needs these cars to protect the environment. Industry needs to sell these biodiesel cars to meet the demand in America in the next few years. American are expected to at some point in the next few years be socially ready to shop smartly and create a demand large enough to consume six hundred million gallons of biodiesel.

These cars are designed to make very limited carbon emissions. The trend from diesel cars, to biodiesel cars is solely how the public, and target market perceive fuel on an emotional level.

Many companies are changing or extending the offering of vehicle choices to include versions of the car product line that run on diesel, which is meant to be synonymous with biodiesel.

What percent these biodiesel oriented diesel cars run best at remains to be seen, since more biodiesel runs thick and cloudy at temperatures below fifty-five degrees Celsius.

Even if the biodiesel sold in the wintertime is B50 for biodiesel cars that can run well on B100 in the warmer months, the benefit to the environment, and Americas move toward self-reliance at this stage is incredible.

Rudolf Diesel himself introduced the Diesel Engine at the Worlds Fair as an engine that runs on peanut oil. After greedier than need be corporations gota hold of the engine, and the popular Diesel name that all changed. It is the original intent that Mr. Diesel offered to the world that the biodiesel car in now taking back as an icon for everyone to enjoy.

1. Safeway Fleet [↩]
2. Trident Iceni [↩]
3. Loremo [↩]
4. 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee [↩]
5. Bio-Beetle [↩]

Mr. Rudolf Diesel’s cars at the Paris Worlds Exposition (Fair) in 1900 ran on peanut oil. Peanut oil can do more than power President Jimmy Carter’s would be Myspace page. Peanut oil is a proven fuel source that will work well as a car fuel if it is mixed correctly with other minor ingredients to let the peanut oil ignite at lower temperature.

Igniting at lower temperature has kept the oil from all just catching on fire.

Most peanut oil/ diesel combinations run off diesel for the first five to ten minutes. This allows the vehicle to warm the peanut oil up to the temperature needed to for it to burn in the engine. This one hundred sixty degree temperature is what is necessary before the peanut oil fuel should be allowed to run through the injector.

Some how the idea of frying up some viddles and pouring the waste oil through a filter into a vat; that then will get blended into biodiesel, producing soap, and ‘ a nitro ingredient’ is really appealing. Another reason for do it yourselfer’s to carry that grin lightly on their rightly smug faces is: From the filtered vat the oil can go straight into the non-warm up tank. Yes, a reason to be smug indeed.

Peanut oil cars are being used by the Thailand Police Force very successfully.
According to Reuters, The Thailand Police Force is expanding the use of oil from restaurants inorder to power all their vehicles. Peanut oil is a large portion of this reused oil. The program started off small, but do to its success the program has been expanded.

Whether biodiesel is new world thinking, or a turn in America and the world, back to practical basics due to a shift in general resources and technology-peanut oil will continue to be a flexible fuel for the human body, homes, business equipment, and cars.