Using Technology To Turn Coffee Cups Into Biofuel

Using Technology To Turn Coffee Cups Into Biofuel

If there are two things people are addicted to, it’s coffee and oil. For years, scientists and inventors have been looking for cheaper, more efficient ways to provide both humans and their cars with the energy they need.

Now, it seems that microbiologists at the University of Manitoba have developed a method for using discarded Tim Hortons coffee cups to feed ethanol-producing bacteria that can be then used as a source of biofuel.


So, it looks like several microbiologists at the University of Manitoba  came up with the idea of using paper cups after walking past some of the four Tim Hortons outlets on their campus. Knowing that these cups are not sent away for any type of recycling program they thought they would make excellent food for the bacteria that they use to make biofuels such as ethanol or hydrogen.

Since starting the project “on a whim” in 2009, they’ve had some promising results: they have found they are able to generate about 1.3 litres of ethanol from about 100  coffee cups. They’re hoping that will eventually lead to more sustainable sources of ethanol, widely used as a gasoline additive and alternative fuel for cars.

Right now, ethanol is mainly produced from food crops such as corn and wheat, but that displaces food production and pushes up food prices.


So, it just a matter of collecting the discarded cups, bringing them back to the lab where they are put through a paper shredder and eventually converted into a mulch resembling pink cotton candy. That increases the surface area that the bacteria can latch onto in order to start munching, speeding up the process.

The mulch is loaded into a bioreactor, where the environment, including the temperature and pH, is controlled to make the bacteria comfortable and help them process the mulch efficiently. Then the bacteria are added, and they go to work.

In the process of using our waste as fuel, they generate their own waste — ethanol and hydrogen, along with some acetic acid and carbon dioxide — that we can use as fuel.


The researchers have tried using cups from brands other than Tim Hortons and found the bacteria have their favourites. Not that other cups would not work, it seems to take longer for the bacteria to break those cups down.

And so it mainly has to do with the specific recipe for the paper used by the manufacturer that supplies the cups to each company.


The researchers estimate it will take several years more work to develop a process for turning cups into fuel that could be commercialized, but warn it could be slow because they haven’t received any funding dedicated to the project. They have been in talks with Tim Hortons officials, who say they’re excited about the project but the researchers would still be looking for additional funding.


Canadians drink from an estimated one billion cups of Tim Horton’s coffee each year. If these cups could be turned into a value-added product there might be a way to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels while cleaning up the environment at the same time.

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