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| (Photo: Shell and bio-bean 2017 – Ed Robinson/Shell) |
Royal Dutch Shell and Bio-bean, a clean technology company, said on Monday
they will use waste grounds to help fuel some of London’s buses.
A
new biofuel, which contains part coffee oil, will be added to the London bus
fuel supply chain where it will be used without the need for modification, the
companies said in a statement.
Bio-bean and
partner Argent Energy have so far produced enough coffee oil to power one bus
for a year. 6,000 litres of coffee oil can help power the equivalent of one London bus for a year.
Bio-bean said the
average Londoner drinks 2.3 cups of coffee a day, producing over 200,000 tons
of waste a year. The company can collect this waste and then dry and process it
to extract coffee oil.
“It’s a great
example of what can be done when we start to reimagine waste as an untapped
resource,” bio-bean founder Arthur Kay said.
London
Transport operator is already using a fuel made with used cooking oil from the
catering industry.
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan,
said last month that his city has a “health crisis….caused directly by
poor-quality air.” The government is taking steps to discourage people from
driving cars that do not meet European Union emissions requirements.
