Bio-bean, a London-based enterprise, takes coffee grinds and turns them into fuel.
Arthur Kay trained in architecture at University College London. While developing a blueprint for a coffee roaster he saw the potential in turning the business’ waste into energy.
Given London produces 200,000 tons of coffee grinds each year, Kay had no shortage of waste to tap into to produce an alternative fuel. Bio-bean takes those coffee grinds to a facility in North London where they’re pressed through a machine for their oil. That oil can then be turned into pellets for heating buildings or kept as a liquid for powering buses.
This idea earned Kay the Mayor’s Low Carbon Prize and funding to start a business based on the biofuel. Boris Johnson commended Kay for his ingenuity with a cheeky remark: ”This kind of innovation is brilliant to see- we are 100% behind bio-bean, which is full of beans.”
Kay partnered with fellow architect from UCL, Benjamin Harriman to launch bio-bean as a full-fledged enterprise in 2012. The company now uses its biofuel to run its own fleet of trucks, eliminating its carbon footprint as it circles the city to collect waste.
Photo Courtesy of Bio-Bean
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Bio-bean estimates that they save up to 53,200 barrels of oil in a year, the equivalent of driving a London bus around the world more than 7,000 times.
The company has won a series of awards since then, including support from Shell Foundation, which has been investing in green-energy entrepreneurs like Kay.
Bio-bean is part of a growing trend of enterprises focused on creating a circular economy, where the end of a product can be recycle into a new product.
Esha Chhabra Contributor
I write about the growing "industry" of social innovation.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
ENTREPRENEURS 175 views
Drones For Good: Projects From Around the World on How Drones Can Help Us
While drones may be a contentious topic, some companies and non-profit organizations are already deploying them for life-saving missions. Here is a roundup of some fascinating new applications of drones that go beyond war, spying, and Amazon deliveries.
In the forests and jungles of the world, as conservationists
Lian Pin Koh, a drone ecologist, is part of a new breed of conservationists who believes that drones can help him and his colleagues cover more land, and acquire better images of wildlife in their habitat — without having to slog through jungles and forests. His organization, ConservationDrones.org, has run projects in Indonesia to monitor orangutan populations; in Nepal, to track one-horned rhinos; and throughout the world (in Tanzania, Belize, Cambodia, the US, Scotland, Madagascar, and more).
In Iran, as a lifeguard
RTS, a Tehran-based lab, has developed a waterproof drone for search and rescue operations on the Caspian Sea. Usable during the day and at night (with thermal cameras), the drone can reach a drowning victim in a third of the time it takes a lifeguard to swim out to him/her. The company recently relocated to London and has been accepting pre-orders.
In Bhutan, as clinics
Bhutan has 0.3 doctors for every 1,000 people in a country of 700,000. Moreover, much of the population lives in the mountains or in valleys, sandwiched between steep climbs. Matternet, probably the most famous and talked about drone startup, was invited by the Bhutanese government and WHO to see if drones could help with delivering medical equipment and medicine.
Photo Courtesy of Matternet.
In Switzerland, as disaster relief
At the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research, a team of scientists and technologists have developed a much-talked about prototype for the first collision-friendly drone, Gimball, suitable for disaster relief scenarios. Last year, it won a $1,000,000 from the UAE government in a ‘drone for good’ competition. Yet, to be tested in the field, its design enables it to fly even after bumping into obstacles.
Photo Courtesy of Flyability.
In Africa, as a highway for medical supplies
AfroTech is developing a two-lane highway in the skies for drones: the Red/Blue Project. The Red Line will service emergency and medical supplies only. Given road conditions on the continent, AfroTech wants to take cargo to the skies, using the Blue Line for commercial deliveries and the Red Line for much-needed care in emergency cases.
In the Netherlands, as an ambulance
At Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, a graduate student designed a drone ambulance that delivers an external defibrillator to help cardiac arrest patients on site. The drone can be adapted to include other emergency materials as well, such as a CPR kit and meds.
