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A new study has found a new use for used coffee grounds: biodiesel.

This story from ScienceDaily says researchers at the University of Nevada-Reno are reporting that waste coffee grounds can be made into biodiesel… making for a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly feedstock for the green fuel:

In the new study, Mano Misra, Susanta Mohapatra, and Narasimharao Kondamudi note that the major barrier to wider use of biodiesel fuel is lack of a low-cost, high quality source, or feedstock, for producing that new energy source. Spent coffee grounds contain between 11 and 20 percent oil by weight. That’s about as much as traditional biodiesel feedstocks such as rapeseed, palm, and soybean oil.

Growers produce more than 16 billion pounds of coffee around the world each year. The used or “spent” grounds remaining from production of espresso, cappuccino, and plain old-fashioned cups of java, often wind up in the trash or find use as soil conditioner. The scientists estimated, however, that spent coffee grounds can potentially add 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the world’s fuel supply.

And here’s another benefit to the coffee-fueled fuel: it has the aroma of coffee. Got to beat that thick, sick smell of non-renewable petroleum, right?

With margins for biodiesel production getting tighter and tighter, it’s more important than ever to get every dollar you can out of refining the green fuel. That’s why some researchers are looking for a new use for one of the byproducts of biodiesel.

This story from cattlenetwork.com says the Ohio State University Department of Animal Science has received a $38,733 one-year grant from the Ohio Soybean Council to use crude glycerol to grow yeast to serve as feed supplement for dairy cattle:

“The idea behind the project is to take what is considered a waste product and turn it into a value-added agricultural commodity,” said Zhongtang Yu, a microbiologist with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center and principal investigator of the project.

“Crude glycerol is unrefined, yet microbes like yeast don’t care about the impurities,” said Yu. “We wanted to see if we could use the glycerol as feed to grow yeast and then use that yeast in dairy cattle diets.”

Yu says the biggest challenge will be finding a yeast that will grow in glycerol.

As you might remember from my post back last March 18th, Continental Airlines promised to test a biofuel in one of its commercial jets in 2009.

Now, according to this story in Biodiesel Magazine, the company has set a date:

On Jan. 7, Continental Airlines will conduct the first algae- and jatropha-based biofuel-powered demonstration flight of a U.S. commercial airliner in Houston. Continental is partnering with The Boeing Co.; CFM International, a 50/50 joint company of General Electric Co. and Snecma; refining technology developer UOP, a Honeywell company; algae oil provider Sapphire Energy; and jatropha oil provider Terrasol.

A blend of 50 percent biofuel and 50 percent traditional jet fuel will be used in one of the two CFM engines. The aircraft will be operating under a specially-issued “Experimental” aircraft type certificate, and will be flown by Continental’s FAA-licensed test pilots. There will be no passengers on the plane.

The article goes on to say that they’ll put the algae-biodiesel through the wringer, testing the green fuel during power accelerations and decelerations, in-flight engine shut-down, restart, and other flight maneuvers that include both normal and non-normal procedures. Officials expect the fuel will be able to be substituted for regular jet fuel without any loss in performance and/or safety… while also flying greener.