UNITED KINGDOM
Scientists in the United Kingdom have found a way to generate electricity using coffee processing’s liquid waste.
The discovery may help provide some power to farmers while reducing the waste’s impact on the local environment, The Guardian newspaper reports.
Researchers from the University of Surrey have created a fuel cell that uses microbes to eat waste matter and generate energy. The amount of energy created is small but researchers are energized by the discovery.
The experimentation, coordinated with researchers in Colombia, showed that the process also would remove contaminants from the sludge-like watery remains.
“The farmer will be getting a little bit of energy coming from the waste they are throwing away,” Claudio Avignone Rossa, a systems microbiologist at the university, told The Guardian. “So, the environment will be cleaner. The finances of the farm will be improved.”
This is not the first time coffee waste has been repurposed for energy. Compressed materials, often called “biologs,” can be burned. This energy, however, is being converted from liquid waste, researchers said. The microbial fuel cells created by the researchers are about the size of a soft drink can and can be produced in containers ranging from stainless steel or ceramics and plastic boxes.