Energy harvesting from waste coffee grounds in the form of biofuel

The development of alternative and renewable energy sources is demanded by our community to ensure current and future energy demands of Australia can be met. Biofuel is a viable renewable energy option, which could be produced on a large scale to cope with significant transport and consumer needs. However, cost efficient and effective feedstocks to produce biofuel are limited. Spent coffee grounds (SCG) are a newly investigated feedstock potential for biofuel creation. SCG is highly abundant, has a significant oil yield and can be collected and utilised instead of being placed in landfill. These properties make SCG a favourable feedstock for biofuel and ultimately could be a significant part of the ongoing answer to energy demands. Environmentally, biofuel emits up to 85% less greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than traditional fossil fuels and through the utilisation of SCG as a biofuel feedstock, it will also help to reduce the amount of waste discarded as landfill. Within this report, results show that as a biofuel feedstock, SCG has a 2.5 year pay-back period before becoming highly profitable. When considering global warming potential combined with electricity demand, the evidence reveals SCG has the lowest value compared to other leading biofuel feedstock competitors. thus, through research and data analysis, SCG as a foodstock for biofuel in Australia is found to be feasible and viable.