At the University of Nevada, a study was done to see if a reliable biodiesel fuel could be produced from used coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are left over from brewing and are usually thrown away or used for fertilizer. To produce their coffee biodiesel fuel, researchers took Starbucks coffee grounds, extracted the coffee's oils, and transesterified the oils into biodiesel fuel.
Per 100g of coffee grounds, the researchers were able to extract 15g of oil on average, of which they were able to convert to 15g of biodiesel. That is a 100% yield! The researchers calculated that producing biodiesel from coffee grounds could produce an additional 340 million gallons of biodiesel per year. Coffee biodiesel was also found to be a very stable biodiesel fuel because of its high antioxidant content.
Lastly, the researchers wanted to know if the coffee grounds, from which they had already extracted oil, was still suitable as fertilizer. Ideal fertilizer from coffee grounds have a Carbon to Nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 20:1. After extraction, the coffee grounds had a C/N ratio of 15.7:1, which still makes great fertilizer.
Sources:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jf802487s
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1 comment:
"extract 15g of oil on average, of which they were able to convert to 15g of biodiesel. That is a 100% yield! "
Is this a 100% yield? Yield is based on molar ratios? Does 1 mole of coffee oil yield 1 mole of biodiesel? Are the molar masses the same? I do not know what they are describing as the coffee oil so it is hard to say.
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