SUSTAINABILITY
BIO-BEAN We now drink over 95m cups of coffee a day in the UK. As well as creating a whole mound of discarded disposable cups, our collective caffeine habit throws up another problem: used coffee grounds. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of grounds are produced by the coffee shops that pepper high streets up and down the country, and 95% of these end up in landfill, where they produce the highly toxic greenhouse gas methane, which is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. As well as harming the environment, this practice hits businesses in the pocket via the government’s landfill tax. Fortunately, a company from just outside Cambridge has brewed up a solution. Bio-bean is the first business in the world to industrialise the conversion of used grounds into biofuel and other bio products. Collecting waste grounds from coffee shops, office blocks and transport, its novel process is able to recycle the grounds into ‘coffee logs’ and other types of fuel, as well as biochemicals. Bio-bean has gone from strength to strength since it was founded in 2013, opening its purpose-
exciting development for Bio-bean. It will enable us to push for even greater innovation in extracting commercial value from used coffee grounds – which are otherwise considered a waste – helping to further strengthen Bio-bean’s position at the forefront of the circular economy and increase the use of sustainable, second-generation resources.” bio-bean.com
built factory at Alconbury Weald and launching its first product, the eco briquette, in 2016. Coffee grounds processed by the firm have been used to power London’s red buses through a partnership with Shell, and recently it secured a £4m equity investment that will allow it to scale internationally and launch three new product lines. Chris Harrison, CEO of Bio-bean, says: “This investment is a hugely
IMAGES Coffee grounds produce methane in a landfill, but Bio-bean converts the waste product into biofuel and other bio products
Collecting waste coffee, Bio-bean's novel process is able to recycle the grounds into 'coffee logs' and other types of fuel, as well as biochemicals"
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ISSUE 02
cambridgecatalyst.co.uk
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