Strong coffee to help power London buses

LONDON, U.K. - Starting Monday, the city of London will fuel its public transit buses with a biofuel.

According to a technology firm Bio-bean, the biofuel it has produced is coffee-based and is strong enough to power one bus for a year.

The said biofuel has been produced by blending oils extracted from coffee waste with diesel. 

According to reports, biofuels produced from cooking oil and tallow from meat processing already powers some of London’s 9,500 buses. 

Experts have noted that the city has increasingly turned to biofuels to reduce carbon emissions.

The company, Bio-bean collects and processes 50,000 tons of coffee grounds a year.

According to the company, the blended fuel can save 6.8 tons of carbon dioxide emissions for each ton of recycled coffee.

Reports have stated that on average, Londoners consume 2.3 cups of coffee a day, contributing to 200,000 tons of coffee waste over the course of a year. 

Bio-bean has said that it collects the unwanted grounds, mostly from London coffee shops, for processing and that the final product consists of about 80 percent diesel and 20 percent biofuels.

In a statement, Bio-bean founder Arthur Kay, a Stanford University graduate said that the company hopes to expand next to France, which consumes 38 billion cups of coffee a year.

The company has further stated that it recognizes there will always be more diesel than coffee in the world – at least, for the time being.

Kay added, “We’re not saying that it’s going to totally replace fossil fuels overnight.”