Arthur Kay is the founder and vice chairman of bio-bean, the world’s first company to industrialise the process of turning coffee waste into advanced biofuels and biochemicals. He is also a recipient of Shell’s LiveWIRE Innovation Award. Kay explained to reporters how waste from coffee grounds could be used as alternative source of fuel to power buses, saying: “There’s nothing like waste, but resources in the wrong place.” EMEKA UGWUANYI was there.
How relevant is the project to a country like Nigeria where Shell has been operating for many decades?
We’re launching bio-bean buses by using biodiesel to power 100 of London buses.Though this is currently used only in London, in future we hope to bring it to a country like Nigeria, where they drink about 275million cups of coffee a year. It’s a huge amount of coffee drunk in Nigeria, so the potential to apply a similar solution in Nigeria is massive. Naturally, what we try to do with this project is to do it here in London, but we’re thinking about applying the same concept in far different places and locations.
What sort of energy challenges will this address?
Bio-bean will address two key problems: the first is a waste problem, because, coffee drinking creates a lot of coffee grounds and in the UK alone we drink tens of tons of millions of coffee and that produces a lot of waste bags. That means a lot of waste out there, which is currently being sent to landfills.What bio-bean does is that we work with a lot of waste management companies and coffee factories to collect coffee grounds and bring them into our factory and thereby save a lot of Carbon Dioxide being sent to landfills. The second thing that we do is that instead of leaving them out there, we then turn those coffee grounds into a range of energy products such as pellets. So, what we’re launching today is to showcase how the alternative source of energy we created by diesel extracted from the oils of those coffee grounds and which were then blended to be used for London buses. In essence, there are two elements to today’s event, one is saving waste and the second is displacing conventional fuel and replacing it with renewal energy sources.
Is the technology limited to arctic country like the UK, as not so much coffee is relatively drunk in Nigeria?
I don’t think it is limited. The bio-bean project is not solely about coffee or biodiesel, it is a broader insight into the context that there’s no such thing as waste, but resources in the wrong place. So, it is to get us to think of our waste and energy process as being connected. What that does is that it helps us come up with some great and bright energy ideas to solve them. Even if Nigeria is not a cold climate like the UK, they still drink a lot of coffee – 275 million cups a year – so it’s not a small amount, it’s a significant amount. So, there’s still an opportunity for a company like bio-bean to, one day, expand to Nigeria.
What’s the quantity of coffee consumption in the UK?
We produce about tons and tons, and there’s a lot of waste from that.
How much of energy is that converted into in terms of powering buses?
In London, specifically, it’s about 200,000 tons of coffee being drunk. That’s enough to power roughly one third of buses on the London network if we’re able to get our hands on every single cup dumped as waste. In essence, what we’re launching today is a smaller demonstration – working with the London fleet – of the potential of this idea and how it can be exciting if we unlock waste and see what we can do with it.
What number of buses will it take off with?
We’re currently producing about 6000 litres, that’s being blended with a lot of fats and oil as we’re working with some partners to produce that fuel. Of course, we’re supported by Shell which actually delivered that budget. To answer your question, it’s difficult to give a specific number of buses, but when we use 6000 litres, that’ll be enough to power one London bus for the entire year.
How soon will something to identify entrepreneurs like Arthur take place in Nigeria?
Shell has been very supportive to entrepreneurs in different countries to nurture creative ideas and I understand that in Nigeria as well, Shell is also working to identify entrepreneurs like me. I know that in Nigeria, just as in the UK, there’s the Shell LiveWire programme, which supports entrepreneurs and start-ups to come up with bright energy ideas in addition to helping them to run successful businesses.
It was indeed through Shell LiveWire that one of our first products got a bit of funding in 2013. That was when it was just me with an idea. We’ve now developed two ideas since then and this is now the third product we’ve produced through the support of Shell. In terms of relevance to Nigeria, it is using that support that Shell provides and its networks in bringing this idea across.
How cost-effective is it?
Our main focus is on saving money for the producers of the waste coffee bags rather than just sending it to landfills. The thinking behind it is that to be environmentally friendly doesn’t have to be that costly.
How sustainable is it?
If we specifically look at this bio-bean project in terms of bus routes, if you take mineral diesel and compare it to second generation diesel, you have an 80 to 85 percent savings and that’s the figure from the recent Transport for London of June 2015.
How much of cleaner energy can it deliver?
It’s pretty significant based on the Transport for London report.
Considering that Nigeria has more buses by virtue of a higher population than the UK., does the amount of pollution being emitted make the country an attractive destination?
Firstly, what we’re doing is to prove the concept of bio-beans being a cleaner concept, a new technology and a new way of thinking about waste and demonstrating it in the market by working with Shell and our partners. Once we’ve proven it here we’ll be glad to expand it outside the UK and Nigeria will be a great place
