VIDEO: BUSES WILL SOON BE FUELED BY RECYCLED COFFEE GROUNDS

The perks of a cup of coffee do not need to end when the grounds are dumped in the trash. Used coffee grounds have been used to make warmer clothing, pave roads, capture carbon from the air and even suck up sewer stench, and now a London-based company has partnered with Shell to turn the leftovers from this human go-juice into biofuel to help run the English capital's expansive bus network.

Bio-bean has been recycling coffee for years now, heating homes and buildings with what it calls Coffee Logs; burnable briquettes made of old grounds rather than wood. Bio-bean is producing a biodiesel as well as the infrastructure to obtain the otherwise-wasted grounds from around London.

The companies call the fuel a "B20" blend, and it is made by first extracting oils from discarded coffee grounds. These are then mixed with other fats and oils and then blended again with mineral diesel to create a fuel with a 20 percent biocomponent.
When this biodiesel is fed into London's buses, it should reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 10 to 15 percent.

This first stage of the project is set to produce 6,000 L (1,585 gallons) of coffee oil for use in selected London buses. In later stages, the companies plan to produce a "pure-blend" that does away with the other fats and oils currently added to the mix.

Have a look at the promotional video below to find out more about the coffee-grounded-fuel-project!