What is Digg?112 Comments
- mentallyinhell, on 01/04/2009, -5/+47If you drive up the cost of my coffee any more I'll kill you.
- borez, on 01/04/2009, -1/+30I tried this...my car ground to a halt.
- KMye, on 01/04/2009, -0/+27I hope you weren't latte for work!
- inactive, on 01/04/2009, -1/+24Are the cars going to get really hyper?
- pyry, on 01/04/2009, -1/+22Might be interesting to know how many pounds of used coffee grounds does a busy cafe produces per day.
- borez, on 01/04/2009, -0/+21Are you making a mochary out of me not bean on time?
- Fredo521, on 01/04/2009, -1/+19Digg - where the next great auto fuel is found every twelve hours
- m0n0kr0m3, on 01/04/2009, -0/+11A lot of people are not reading that it's not beans, it's grounds that have already been used to make a cuppa joe. READ THE ARTICLE......
- XxbladesfirexX, on 01/04/2009, -5/+16Damn... and I thought coffee was expensive enough already.
- mdmanic, on 01/04/2009, -2/+11Why does everyone post that this would bring the cost of coffee up? The article pretty clearly says the technology would use already brewed grounds... therefore getting more usage out of the same amount of product. If anything, this would bring the effective cost down, since cafes and people could resell their grounds for pure profit.
- JDoorjam, on 01/04/2009, -0/+9.... ah, like gasoline?
- luminique, on 01/04/2009, -2/+11Why would this drive up the cost of coffee? They're not using fresh coffee beans, just grounds that would be thrown out anyway. It's more likely to keep the cost to the consumer down, as the extra income from selling their trash can help offset increases in operating expenses for the coffee shops.
- cozmozepher, on 01/04/2009, -0/+7can you people not read? the coffee grounds are recycled, the price of coffee would not be affected. Hooked on phonics kids.
- borez, on 01/04/2009, -0/+7Oh it was over in an instant, no need to milk it.
- JDoorjam, on 01/04/2009, -0/+7RTFA -- it's for coffee grounds. They're not talking about using coffee as a direct feedstock, and so it wouldn't affect water use at all. This is a potential fuel that currently is just thrown away as a byproduct.
- staticoranges, on 01/04/2009, -0/+6Why would they skyrocket? I imagine coffee prices going down, at least the price after it's already brewed. Places like starbucks would be able to sell their coffee grounds to oil companies, and we'd benefit from the extra revenue.
- Dumbledorito, on 01/04/2009, -1/+7I had the same problem with my 1998 Frappucino, the one with the venti on the hood.
- sfhock, on 01/04/2009, -2/+8well, it sure powers my engine so why not my car's?
- carbonfilament, on 01/04/2009, -0/+6they didn't rtfa
- Dumbledorito, on 01/04/2009, -0/+5Dibs on being the "Sheik of Seattle."
- tsproule, on 01/04/2009, -3/+8You can't produce enough to make it worthwhile.
- luminique, on 01/04/2009, -0/+5Not likely, but no one is promoting this as the only solution. Relying on a single source of fuel is what got us in this mess to begin with.
- JDoorjam, on 01/04/2009, -0/+4This will not affect the price of coffee, because the beans are already too expensive to use as a direct feedstock, whereas the grounds are simply thrown away. This will raise the price of coffee _grounds_ from zero to non-zero.
- inactive, on 01/04/2009, -1/+5shes like 12 and looks like a boy you creep
- ZincSaucier, on 01/04/2009, -0/+4coffee is currently the 2nd most trafficked commodity on the planet. oil being 1st
- xero69, on 01/04/2009, -1/+5Would this work for electric cars too? I was picturing some kind of setup with coffee drinking hamsters running in little wheels connected to a generator....
- Ragzouken, on 01/04/2009, -0/+4Correction: There is literally 1 person living in the US for every 14,000 people living in the US.
- 808ethan, on 01/04/2009, -0/+4Yeah, gasoline sucks. I thought that was the whole reason were trying to get rid of it?
- JDoorjam, on 01/04/2009, -0/+4They're already making it worthwhile to recycle cooking grease in certain cities -- this isn't much different. It's not scalable enough to replace petroleum-based fuels, of course (nothing is), but it's certainly worth a look in areas that are already generating mountains of coffee grounds, which is true of most urban areas in the U.S.
- 2of8, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3There's a pun thread above! gah.
- askantik, on 01/04/2009, -1/+4Because greenhouse gases are the only things in the world that are bad for the environment, and nuclear energy doesn't produce toxic waste.
/oh wait, I had a brain fart. Those things aren't true. - borez, on 01/04/2009, -0/+3Yes, like me you should have filtered the fuel too. Damn those fancy carppuccinos.
- itsbob, on 01/04/2009, -1/+4Was it a coarse grind or fine like espresso?
- Dumbledorito, on 01/04/2009, -0/+3And it's always the year of the Linux Desktop.
- TVarmy, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2Actually, decaying food lets off methane, and I'm pretty sure coffee is no exception. That methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas 20x more harmful than CO2, can be burned in the same way as natural gas. Many landfills burn the methane that seeps out in a turbine, which protects the environment from the methane-driven global warming, and provides electricity said car could run on.
Further, some environmentalists are predicting that homes and businesses in colder climates with natural gas lines could install small natural gas turbines to generate electricity and heat from the natural gas, instead of just heat which comes from a furnace. I don't see it being very hard to set up a compost bin of waste food and coffee grinds with a line to draw in the methane and burn it along with the natural gas. However, I imagine a home or coffee house wouldn't produce enough methane for this endeavor to be worthwhile. A municipal compost heap could do it, though.
Regarding hamsters, I instead think you'd be wisest to skip the transmission losses in a generator and batteries, and instead just get an old-school, 1800's carriage, and then set up a crapload of hamsters with reins and java-infused feedbags. Sure, you'd be odd looking, but it'd look less awkward than a Prius. - inactive, on 01/04/2009, -1/+3The way coffee gives me gas, this makes perfect scents.
- Dumbledorito, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2Come down off your chai horse and stop being in such a froth about it.
- 2of8, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2That's already been addressed twice above.
- TVarmy, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2Maybe it's more Hooked on Economics? They're otherwise intelligent children, who believe that recycling a waste product will raise the price of the product its from.
- TVarmy, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2808ethan, WTF? Gasoline's problem is that it causes environmental problems by releasing CO2 that was formerly underground into the air. At first, this wasn't a problem. Now it's becoming one we'll have to face. For most other purposes, it's been a decent fuel. It doesn't freeze in any climate, it's relatively cheap, it can stay in a tank for a while without losing its potency, and it carries a lot of energy in a small volume. However, technology is catching up, and other fuels are gaining those qualities.
Plus, gasoline can be pipelined! The main concern with ethanol has been that it can't be pipelined, so its gains are lost.
However, that's beside the point in this case. They're talking about extracting oil from spent grinds and mixing it with diesel. It sounds like they could be processed in a variety of places. I imagine it wouldn't be hard for an existing recycling center to process coffee with a small amount of new equipment. Using existing curbside pickup vehicles from the recycling company, the coffee grinds could reach the plant for a small amount of fuel usage. Consider that there's 10-20% oil by weight in the grinds, from the article, and 100 pounds of weight only decreases fuel efficiency by 1%, in most vehicles, this means that 100 pounds of coffee, on a recycling truck that gets 15 MPG, would produce at least 10 pounds of fuel, at a cost of .005 lbs of diesel fuel, per mile. If the truck is going less than 2000 miles, you still come out ahead in terms of fuel usage. Frankly, I doubt it would go that far in the United States, as that's going from one coast to the other. - SuperJimmyJimbo, on 01/04/2009, -0/+2keeps me runnin'
- TVarmy, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2This is a biofuel we aren't taking advantage of. It would turn into methane without our use, and that's worse than carbon dioxide for the environment. We don't have to burn it in cars, but we'd be wasteful not to at least burn the oil in a turbine to create electricity for the grid. What makes this a good source is that its a waste product, rather than a food.
Further, the coffee plants absorb CO2 from the environment. The coffee plant gets turned into beans, and people drink the brewed beans, leaving grinds. If we turn the grinds into CO2, that's close carbon neutral. It's not truly carbon neutral because of shipping, roasting, processing, etc. However, that's no big deal, as humans would do that anyway. People love their coffee, and they won't give it up. Vegetarianism is, in general, better for the environment than eating meat, but the vast majority of people haven't budged there, either. - 2of8, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1Get off the caffeine, seems to be making you violent.
- Hypatia42, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1I knew it! Starbucks is the new Haliburton.
- TVarmy, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1And AIDS is cured yet again.
- TVarmy, on 01/05/2009, -1/+2Let's be realistic. Will people stop drinking coffee or take to drinking chemical concoctions of imitation coffee to save water any time soon? No. Coffee grinds in the trash are a fact of life. The beauty is that this takes a waste product and turns it into fuel. In the landfill, these become methane, which enters the atmosphere to accelerate global warming 20 times faster than an equal volume of carbon dioxide. When these grinds become fuel for a car, they are saving space in the landfills and providing energy and relatively weak CO2 instead of methane flying in the air for no reason.
A key component of green technology is that waste products should become fuel or parts of another design whenever possible. Consider that weapons-grade uranium takes a lot of resources to mine, and that the use of that uranium as intended will cause massive environmental and human devastation, but the by-product depleted uranium is easily shielded to cancel out its radiation, and can serve a useful purpose, mainly where lead would usually be used. Using that potential waste is not bad for the environment. It's keeping us from mining more lead, and nuclear weapons are a reality of our world, whether we like it or not.
Of course, if a company starts buying the grinds to make fuel and then tries to get people to drink more coffee so they can get the used grinds for less from coffee shops, then your argument is valid. However, I say it's still better than letting the grinds be useless in a landfill. - fjsferreira, on 01/04/2009, -0/+1What comes next? Frozen peas?
- Managua8Green, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1I..said... COFFEE!!!!
History of Violence. - Pareidoliatic, on 01/05/2009, -1/+2Ahem... "everyone" doesn't say that it would drive coffee prices up. Only morons.
- swagv, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1What Not Invented Here crap. Brazil has been doing this for years: Google "Brazil", "coffee", and "biodiesel". These researchers need an Internet account.
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