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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.

Winter weather is upon us, and furnaces across the country have been kicking in. Now, that cozy heat on those frosty days can come to you in a green style: biodiesel.

With that in mind, the National Biodiesel Board has launched Bioheatonline.com, a new Web site designed to educate customers and dealers on the beneficial properties of Bioheat® fuel… an environmentally friendly home heating oil blended with pure biodiesel:

Bioheat oil meets the increasing demand for cleaner and greener home heat. Bioheatonline.com was created with two goals in mind – to educate home heating oil customers and dealers on the benefits of Bioheat fuel, and to provide top-notch marketing tools for local heating oil dealers. With a simple, video-based approach, Bioheatonline.com features personable hosts who walk consumers through the basics of biodiesel and Bioheat fuel while explaining the benefits for our country, our environment, and our homes.

For heating oil dealers, the site provides technical resources and clear, concise information about blending and selling Bioheat heating oil. The site also encourages heating oil dealers to register online to become Bioheat dealers. Once registered, dealers are given access to professionally produced advertising and marketing materials, customizable for their market, with the help of the Shaw Company, the campaign’s creator and authorized facilitator. In addition to marketing materials, dealers have access to the Bioheat hotline at 877-B5-1-LINE, where they can discuss technical and market issues with the industry professionals at Advanced Fuel Solutions led by Paul Nazzaro, Sr.

There are more than 100 Bioheat fuel dealers nationwide, and that number is growing.

One of the big knocks against biodiesel (and other renewable fuels made from grains) is that production of the green fuel takes away from feed for livestock (and for people). Well, a college in Canada is trying to break that image that livestock producers and biodiesel producers can’t work together.

This story from Biodiesel Magazine says the Centre for Agricultural Renewable Energy and Sustainability at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus in Guelph, Ontario, is building a model farm-scale oilseed processing and biodiesel production plant on campus to show how soybean and pork producers can work together to produce biodiesel and feed hogs:

The project is being funded through a CAN$938,000 (US$734,000) grant from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food program, part of Ontario’s Agricultural Adaptation Council.

Schaafsma said researchers ultimately want to know how much farmers might gain by crushing oilseeds, and making meal and biodiesel on the farm instead of transporting the oilseeds to be sold elsewhere, or purchasing meal and biodiesel elsewhere and transporting it to the farm. Furthermore, the farm-scale, closed-loop model of farming has its detractors. “It doesn’t garner a lot of favor with the folks that argue that you have to have huge scale to be profitable,” he said. “We’re somewhat going against the stream on this.

The article goes on to say that even the glycerin from the biodiesel production could be used for heat or electricity. Since it is being set up by a college, it will be used to teach students as they help run the facility.