Green energy firm brewing up plans to turn train station coffee grounds into biofuel

THE UK’s biggest railway stations have signed up to a new project turning coffee waste into fuel.

Euston, King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Victoria and Waterloo, all in London, generate nearly 700 tonnes of coffee waste each year between them.

Rather than sending it to landfill this waste will now go to a factory run by a firm, bio-bean, to become carbon-neutral biofuels for heating homes, offices and factories.

Each tonne of waste coffee grounds creates over 5,700 kilowatt hours of energy, with the 700 tonnes enough to power 1,000 homes year.

David Biggs, managing director of property at Network Rail, said: “Millions of cups of coffee are bought in our stations every year and

for a that number is growing. This partnership will see the waste from those purchases put to good use, creating biofuels that can be used in vehicles and to heat homes and saving more than 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.”

Arthur Kay, chief executive of bio-bean, said: “The UK generates 500,000 tonnes of waste coffee grounds each year, costing the coffee indus- try almost £80 million in disposal fees. Bio-bean recycles waste grounds into advanced biofuels at an industrial scale, creating sustainable green energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.”