Coffee Chaff Car Parts

Ford Motor Company and McDonald’s USA are shining new light on how to use coffee chaff. Together, the two American business giants are making car parts.

Instead of sending millions of pounds of chaff, the bean’s dried skin that’s shed during roasting, to compost piles, Ford and McDonald’s have engineered a new use. They discovered that chaff can be converted into a durable material that can help support some car parts.

Here’s how it works. If chaff is heated at high temperatures under low oxygen and then mixed with plastics and other additives, it can be converted into pellets. Those pellets then can be molded into different shapes.

This composite meets quality specifications, Ford stated in a release, and already is being tested for headlamp housings and other interior parts. The parts are expected to be about 20% lighter than previous components and require about 25% less energy to create.

McDonald’s is expected to send “a significant portion” of its North American coffee chaff to Ford for use.

“McDonald’s commitment to innovation was impressive to us and matched our own forward-thinking vision and action for sustainability,” said Debbie Mielewski, Ford senior technical leader, sustainability and emerging materials research team. “This has been a priority for Ford for over 20 years, and this is an example of jump-starting the closed-loop economy, where different industries work together and exchange materials that otherwise would be side or waste products.”

“Like McDonald’s, Ford is committed to minimizing waste and we’re always looking for innovative ways to further that goal,” said Ian Olson, senior director, global sustainability, McDonald’s. “By finding a way to use coffee chaff as a resource, we are elevating how companies together can increase participation in the circular economy.”