Written in Collaboration with Maariya Quavi, Juky Chen Wei Ling, Aditi Kumar, and Apoorva Tumu
Abstract
Climate change is not a novelty. It’s been happening for years now but is nearing the point of being irreversible. When examining the causes of a calamity like this it’s safe to say that there are more than one, but methane emissions are certainly a large contributor, especially as they are caused by human activity. Methane (23x worse than CO2) is a natural gas that is more popularly known as “cow fart”, but when fossil fuels like oil and coal are burned, and pursuits like deforestation occur, there results in an excess amount in the atmosphere. In 2021 roughly 640 million tons of methane were emitted (source). Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, and methane is contributing heavily to this effect, subsequently leading to respiratory disease in humans, disrupted food chains, wildfires, droughts, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and more. This leads to hundreds of thousands of people and wildlife killed yearly. Because of climate change, over 1 million species of animals face extinction (source), and the rate of extinction is now over 1,000 times the natural rate (source). We need something — a radical solution — to play a role in putting an end to climate change. One way to do this is by removing the excess methane and putting it to a greater purpose. This is where CleanBean comes in, a solution with the potential to sequester over 2.5 million tons of methane per year and meet more than 40% of the global demand for biofuel. CleanBean creates a carbon-negative biofuel by optimizing the process of coffee waste disposal.
Outline
1. Background
1.1 Intro to Coffee Grounds and Jatropha Seeds
1.2 Effect on the Environment
1.3 Past Projects and Attempts
2. How It Will Operate
2.1 Coffee Collection
2.2 Oil Extraction by N-Heptane
3. Methane Biodiesel Production
3.1 Moisure Extraction through Soxhlet Apparatus
3.2 Oil Separation
3.3 Removal of Other Compounds
3.4 Refinement Processes
4. Materials and Costs
4.1. Advances in Methane Biodiesel Production
4.2. What Materials We Need for the Extraction
5. Becoming Profitable
5.1 Sources of Revenue
5.2 Scaling our Company and Manufacturing
6. Our Impact
6.1 Positive Externalities
7. Conclusion
1. Background
1.1 Intro to Coffee Grounds and Jatropha Seeds
Coffee grounds are the result of brewing coffee and are the final product after the preparation of coffee. Otherwise known as SCGs, they have around 2 percent nitrogen in volume and considered mildly acidic. The acid in coffee is water-soluble so the acid is mostly in the coffee. Coffee grounds are also close to pH neutral (between 6.5 to 6.8 pH) since the quantity of caffeine remaining in used coffee grounds is around 48 percent of that in fresh coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are known for being multipurposeful —
Jatropha curcas is a species of flowering plant that is native to the American tropics, most likely Mexico and Central America, and can thrive in almost any terrain. Along with its various medicinal uses, jatropha seeds contain 27–40% oil that can be processed to produce a high quality biofuel or biodiesel that can be used in a standard diesel car or further processed into jet fuel. The residue remaining after the processing can also be used as biomass feedstock to power electricity plants and for digesters to produce biogas. It can also be used as fertilizer due to its rich content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Both of these renewable materials are environmentally friendly, low-cost biodiesel feedstocks with good fuel properties and more oil than other species, which will eventually have no impact on food prices or the food vs fuel debate. They also have high lipid, cetane and saturated fat counts along with a high calorific value and low sulfur content, both of which are beneficial for biodiesel production.
1.2 Effect On The Environment
According to sustainability researcher Gunter Pauli, we have more than 23 million tons of coffee ground being wasted in landfills globally every year. They end up emitting methane- a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, and one of the primary causes of global warming. According to the research done by the Institute for Sanitary Engineering in Costa Rica analyzing the methane emission in different decomposition methods, 129 grams of methane is emitted into the atmosphere per every kilogram of coffee ground in the standard decomposition procedure. This is almost 3 million tons of methane being released using current decomposition methods in the global scale.
Along with the lengthy decomposition of SCGs, coffee grounds includes oils and other substances that increase the acidity of the soil. This produces acidic leachate (liquid) in landfills, which can harm the soil around. When sun-grown procedures are preferred over traditional growth methods, soil quality declines eventually. The removal of shade can have a substantial influence on different soil quality indicators, with greater rates of erosion happening on restored coffee farms with less vegetation. Since specific compounds included in dumped coffee grounds can also induce DNA damage and present toxicity to aquatic organisms, coffee waste discarded in the environment may constitute a risk to human and environmental health. A severe risk is also imposed on the coffee-producing factories’ surrounding environment since the coffee cherries grown and harvested during operations leave only the bean remaining. The separation of the beans from the coffee cherries produces massive amounts of trash in the form of pulp, residual debris, and parchment.
With CleanBean, we will aim to reduce carbon emissions by removing coffee ground waste from municipal landfills and avoid the use of crop-derived biofuels like palm, sugarcane and corn oil which have a questionable environmental reputation. We will also recognize and note that the combination of various biodiesel feedstocks is the only way to enable production and the process should limit the overall amount of plant nutrients lost so that it doesn’t disrupt the carbon cycle.
1.3 Past Projects and Attempts
Although a small number of businesses are using spent coffee grounds to make biofuels, researchers at Lancaster University have found a way to significantly improve the efficiency of the heptane process- vastly increasing biofuel from coffee’s commercial competitiveness.
Lancaster University researchers found they can combine extraction of the oils from the spent coffee grounds and the conversion of it into coffee biodiesel by using just methanol and a catalyst — removing the need for hexane altogether and saving on chemical waste. In addition, they also discovered that the optimal time for the process was 10 minutes to gain the same yield of oils from the spent coffee grounds — a significant reduction in time needed and associated energy costs
“Our method vastly reduces the time and cost needed to extract the oils for biofuel making spent coffee grounds a much more commercially competitive source of fuel,” said Dr. Najdanovic-Visak, Lecturer in Lancaster University’s Engineering Department. “A huge amount of spent coffee grounds, which are currently just being dumped in landfill, could now be used to bring significant environmental benefits over diesel from fossil fuel sources.”
2. How It Will Operate
2.1 Coffee Collection
Since SCGs are also part of household garbage which ends up, in the best cases, landfills or other organic waste collections, it was suitable to raise awareness of the value of SCGs to the consumers. Due to the low quantities of SCGs produced by each family and the difficulty of preserving them from becoming moldy, because of the presence of large amounts of water inside them (which causes the proliferation of bacteria within a few days), it is not efficient to plan a system of door to door collection. Instead, implementations such as changing consumer attitude against waste being disposed of can be a small step that can lead to newly established resources and the generation of many other products. Therefore, tackling the problem of used coffee grounds is not only the responsibility of consumers, but also specialty roasters and café owners who make their living from roasting and selling coffee.
To allow for a smooth transportation of products, it is necessary to be in collaboration with a local garbage or recycling collection authority and to being collecting SCGs from small cafes or coffee shops to generate more activity from the customers. Standard regulations will be taken to ensure the spent grounds are segregated based on brand and location. If we get higher than the expected 500 grams of SCGs within 2 months, we will start formed connections with larger coffee chains — first with smaller regional brands such as Philz Coffee then with larger nationwide brands such as Dunkin’ — pitching our idea, short/long-term liabilities, and financial model. If we don’t meet the goal or we start growing to a large size, we will make plans to contact international coffee farms to further accumulate the respective amount. We hope to later get in touch with larger multinational brands such as Starbucks to pilot and soon implement our model in several of their shops within certain regions closer to coffee production hotspots.
Afterwards, only 100 grams of a specific brand and type of coffee ground {ex. Starbucks medium roasted coffee} will go towards sampling. The first 50 grams will drireclty go through the oil extraction process to quantify the weight of oil within the coffee grounds. The other 50 grams of SCGs were brewed with 90°C hot water and then filter paper was used to filter the coffee grounds. After brewing, the filtered coffee grounds were collected and dried. Later the oil extraction will be conducted with the dried SCGs. The mass of the SCGs and the mass of the coffee oil will be recorded.
2.2 Oil Extraction by N-Heptane
For many years, commercial-grade hexane has been the preferred solvent for extracting oil from cottonseed. Recent environmental and health concerns about hexane may limit the use of this solvent; therefore, the need for a replacement solvent has become an important issue. Heptane is similar to hexane but does not have the environmental and health concerns associated with the latter. On a laboratory scale, delinted, dehulled, ground cottonseed was extracted with hexane and heptane. The solvent-to-meal ratio was 10:1 (vol/wt). The yield and quality of the oil and meal extracted by heptane were similar to that extracted by hexane. Extraction temperature was higher for heptane than for hexane. A higher temperature and a longer time were required to desolventizing miscella from the heptane extraction than from the hexane extraction. Based on these studies, heptane offers a potential alternative to hexane for extracting oil from cottonseed.
In the traditional process, manufacturers mix spent coffee grounds with hexane and cook the mixture at 60°C for between 1–2 hours. The hexane is then evaporated to leave behind the oils. Methanol and a catalyst are then added to make biodiesel and a glycerol by-product — which also needs separating.
However, heptane, which is another extraction solvent, is a cheaper option than hexane even though the overall process will be longer and require a higher temperature. Our strategy is to use jatropha seeds to add to the mixture increasing the biodiesel production yield. Additionally, heptane is a safer process to work with than hexane, which is more flammable.
3. Methane Biodiesel Production
3.1 Moisture Extraction Through Soxhlet Apparatus
Three different methods: conventional, soxhlet, and supercritical-extraction are used to extract oil from the spend coffee grounds. For conventional and supercritical extraction, spent coffee grounds are mixed with n-hexane or diethyl ether, than it is stirred vigorously, and tranferred into a separating funnel. The combined organic layer is decanted and evaporated under reduced pressure to obtain the oil. Soxhlet extraction was found to be more effective as the conventional extraction process gave a 6 percent oil yield while the soxhlet gave a 14 percent oil yield.
In our method, the collected grounds are dried in an oven at 105° C for 24 hours to remove moisture (mostly 18–45 wt. %) and then the oil is extracted by applying a Soxhlet process. A low-boiling organic solvent such as heptane was used. The Soxhlet device temperature is kept at 65–70 °C. Afterwards, the dried coffee grounds are weighed and as a final point, the dried SCGs will be stored in a bucket with desiccants. The moisture content within the wet SCGs will be calculated via the following equation:
At the end of the process, the oil was separated from the organic solvent using a rotary vacuum evaporator, dried at 60 °C, and weighed. The yield was calculated on a dry weight basis. The experimental results showed that the oil content of coffee grounds is between 10–15 % w/w (on a dry weight basis). The oil extraction process from waste coffee grounds is shown in Fig. 1.
The chemical engineers have consolidated the existing multi-stage process into one step (known as in-situ transesterification) which combines the extraction of the oils from the spent coffee grounds and the conversion of it into coffee biodiesel.
3.2 Oil Separation
Esterification
In the pre-treatment process, crude waste coffee oil is entered into a rotary evaporator and heated to remove moisture for 1 hour at 95°C under a vacuum. In the esterification process, the molar ratio of methanol to refined oil was maintained at 12:1 (50% v/v). 1% (v/v) of sulphuric acid (H2SO4) was added to the pre-heated oils at 60o C for 3 hours under 600 rpm stirring speed in a glass reactor. The lower layer was separated
3.3 Removal Of Other Compounds
On completion of this reaction, the products were poured into a separating funnel to separate the excess alcohol, sulphuric acid, and impurities present in the upper layer.
In situ transesterification
In situ transesterification, or direct transesterification, is a method that combines lipids extraction and transesterification in one step. Unlike the rest of the SCGs to biodiesel experiments, this method will eliminate the costly (time and money) solvent extraction step, and make the process more cost effective. According to a study done by the University of Ohio, if we end up using this conversion for several feedstock and their assigned catalyst, the acid catalysts will have a higher biodiesel yield for algae feedstock in general. When considering the effectiveness of reaction temperature and amount of methanol usage, only one of the alkaline catalysts (NaOCH3) did not work in the in situ conversion.
In this process, crude waste coffee oil will be reacted with 25% (v/v) of methanol and 1% (m/m) of potassium hydroxide (KOH) and maintained at 60o C for 2 hours and 600 rpm stirring speed. After completion of the reaction, the produced biodiesel was deposited in a separation funnel for 15 hours to separate glycerol from biodiesel. The lower layer which contained impurities and glycerol was drawn off. Then the unrefined biodiesel was washed to remove the entrained impurities and glycerol. In this process, 50% (v/v oil) of distilled water at 60oC was sprayed over the surface of the ester and stirred gently. This process was repeated several times until the pH of the distilled water became neutral. The lower layer was discarded, and the upper layer was entered into a flask and dried using Na2SO4 and then further dried using a rotary evaporator to make sure that biodiesel is free from methanol and water.
3.4 Refinement Processes
After the reaction, the mixture of the final product with methanol was transferred into the rotary evaporator heated at 95°C under vacuum conditions for 1 hour to remove methanol and water from the esterified oil The extra amount of methanol will be recycled and the volume will be recorded. After solvent separation, the product will be transported into another separatory funnel and allowed to settle for 30 minutes. Then 20 mL of distilled water at 80 degrees celsius will be used to wash the final product and there will need to be an increase of the surface content between the removed compounds or impurities and the distilled water. There will be a 60 minute window to allow settling to occur after washing each time.
Afterwards, a pH meter will be used to test the pH of the effluent. If the pH of wastewater reached neutral, the washing step is considered to be completed.
The oil from waste coffee possesses the potential as a feedstock for biodiesel production. Then the oil was extracted from waste coffee grounds using heptane. The two-step acid-base catalyst transesterification process was used to produce biodiesel as the acid value of the crude oil was found higher (15.4 mgKOH/g). This was followed by an investigation of some physical and chemical properties. It was found that the properties of waste coffee biodiesel fell within the limit of ASTM standards. So the studied physicochemical properties of the waste coffee biodiesel.
4. Materials and Costs
4.1 Advancements In Methane Biodiesel Production
As intensive industrial activities around the world have led to increased energy demand and environmental protection, biofuels produced from biomass resources through eco-friendly approaches are getting attention from researchers and scientsts. They are typically developed as a substitute for petroleum because of their nontoxic, sulfur-free, biodegradable nature, originating from the renewable sources. Depending upon the feedstock, biofuels are categorized into four types: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation biofuels. The 1st generation of biofuels are created from oil-basis plants, sugar, and starch yields and traditionally contribute to the nutrition debate. Biofuels of the 2nd generation are termed as bioethanol development from woodland deposits, unwanted wood remnants, easily obtainable crops, including lingocelluose green waste substances. The social outcome of utilizing the first-generation biofuels is to re-direct valuable assets from where they are most needed; for example, maize is an amazing food to generate biofuels. The demand for biofuel increases the global market price of maize, and the quantities directly produced as a food crop grow limited. Especially after the global food demand crisis of 2007–2008, there needed to be a way to satisfy increasing food requirements for an expanding population while keeping food costs leveled and not to the expense of biofuel engineering. For the 2nd generation, environmental area has been comprehensively exploited for crops for the processing of lignocellulose biomass for biofuels. Often Deforestation will pressure local citizens to relocate and will create a big obstacle in acquiring lands.
The world biofuels production from 2007 to 2017 increased at an annual growth rate of 11.4%. According to the IEA report, worldwide biofuel generation was intensified by 10 billion liters in 2018 to record 154 billion liters. It is forecasted to expand by 25% in 2024, with an expected 3% annual growth rate. However, bioenergy has significant challenges and uncertainties (especially crude oil price uncertainties), including political risks and financial obstacles. Also, the technological obstacles for the commercialization of advanced biofuels have proven to be greater than envisioned. Despite all these, the biofuel industry continues to expand, and its share in global energy consumption continues to increase as around 2.8 million jobs were created by this sector.
Purpose-grown feedstocks (used to extract oils) for biodiesels are controversial because of their cost and the demand they place on land and water. However, spent coffee grounds, which have a high calorific value, offer a good low-cost alternative feedstock.
4.2 What Materials We Need For Extraction
In order for the pre-treatment and extraction processes to take place and run smoothly, the following materials need to be acquired.
Firstly, we would need around 1000 grams of used coffee grounds that would later be separated on which will be dried first or treated. In order to obtain the amount required under a period of time, we will partner with collection authorities and various local and national coffee chains. We will also start gradually creating a circular system of accumulating and recycling that is further explained in section 2.1.
To develop and conduct the reaction, we will need different alkaline and acidic reagents with the intention of applying impregnation to embed the catalyst since otherwise it will not be able to be effectively in contact with the coffee oil in the grounds. The reagents used during that process will include potassium hydroxide (Fisher Scientific, P250–500), sodium hydroxide (Fisher Scientific, S318–500), sodium methoxide (Across, A0323231), sulfuric acid (Fisher Scientific, A300–500), jatropha seeds, and 250 mL of methanol as a solvent.
In order to set up the soxhlet apparatus and react the solvent with the oil, heating tape (BriskHeat, HSTAT101006) and a heating mantle (Thermo Scientific, EM0500/CEX1) will be needed to adjust and maintain the temperature within the solvent as either 60°C or 70°C. A pre-weighed cellulosic thimble (Whatman, 25 x 80 mm) and a glycerol funnel will also be required to fill the dried SCGs and separate the other compounds during transesterification.
We will also need a standard purpose-built rotary evaporator (BUCHI Rotavapor R II) to recycle the solvent at a rotor speed of 2 and a temperature of 60°C with vacuum applied. The recycled solvent will be used in the future extraction process.
Lastly we would need other standard laboratory equipment such as a 250 and 500 mL Erlenmeyer flask, a hot plate, a pH meter, a separatory funnel , test tubes, and Whatman filter paper size 150 mm which will most likely be provided at a local laboratory setting.
5. Becoming Profitable
5.1 Sources of Revenue
CleanBean has two primary sources of revenue and one secondary source. The first primary source of revenue is from selling renewable biodiesel to a worldwide market rapidly increasing and currently at 2.5 billion gallons in 2021. This includes both automotive/agriculture industries plus governments to expand the range of products.
The United States is the leading biofuel producer in the world in 2021, accounting for nearly 41% of global biofuel production that year. Certain laws passed such as the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 provide tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production and rural development of various types. In other countries — most of which are primarily are in South America and Europe —legislations and ethanol programs have been enacted in order to expand production and reach a target amount of biofuel per capita. In Asia particularly, representatives from ASEAN signed the Cebu Declaration on the East Asian Energy Security Pact to promote cleaner sources of energy and subsequently formed policies mandating a certain percentage(1–10%) biofuel utilized.
Finally, we derive a secondary source of revenue from accumulating SCGs from collection authorities and coffee chains that will be used as a cheap feedstock and promoting our business through their brand. Partnering with chains to help them become more sustainable will build brand loyalty as long-term customers are a key component in managing costs— consumers will feel positive after purchasing products from a business that is proving to do no harm or minimizes harm to the environment. A study done by Nielsen global online survey says that 66% percent of consumers are willing to pay more which will in turn increase our profitability. A portion of their sales will then go to us as will be stated in a deal. The U.S government {EPA, SBA} in particular also offers various tax advantages, such as grants of 10 and 30 percent for use of alternative energy properties, to businesses that go green. Equally, since Return On Investment (ROI) and Sustainability go hand in hand, it creates a competitive advantage between other businesses and it will mitigate investment risk. While this secondary source of revenue is important in its own right, the exact financial details will depend on overall demographics within each region and the sales generated before and after the shift.
5.2 Scaling our Company and Manufacturing
The plan to scale CleanBean can be broken down into three steps:
Step #1: Building a small model and testing samples
Based on our general research, our model will not under a set piece of equipment, so multiple steps need to be taken in order for the process to work. Our average oil yield will be 7.60%, which is from one of the samples we test, due to several optimizations made to the methods used in the paper. This working prototype will include all the necessary components — from a rotary evaporator to the devices for capturing and measuring solvent types and their coffee oil yields. All the required chemical reactions such as esterification and transesterification will also be considered for time length and mass until the continuous and stable utilization of SCGs for crude biodiesel is verified.
Furthermore, we will have to plan out a large chunk of time towards comparing different companies and their SCG feedstock to see which has greatest coffee oil yield and which solvents worked the best to extract coffee oil. It will also be optimal for us to create a series of graphs and tables to measure the moisture content(wt. %) and oil density(g/ml) for each feedstock and their extraction solvent. We will also run several experiments prior for each chemical reaction, observing how two stage reactions might have a lower yield or how polar and non-polar solvents differ in results. This prototype will allow us to interchange and test the effectiveness of various components within the system before we scale, ensuring that the moisture content within the SCGs had a negative effect on the coffee oil extraction rate therefore needing removal. In short, to optimize and determine the feasibility of future models at scale, building a working prototype is necessary for rapid iteration.
Step #2: Finalizing the prototype and building a small plant
Once the prototype is optimized after roughly 6–8 months of constant testing and iteration, it is then time to take those learnings and apply them to building a small plant where the cost per tonne of biodiesel will be dramatically reduced and allow CleanBean to be poised to achieve the greatest impact. This model plant will demonstrate the viability of our solution at scale and will be the bridge between our prototype and large-scale implementation.
This plant will be strategically located either in the USA, Mexico, , or other Western European countries (England, France, Germany) , depending on various factors including mandates in that country and possible grants that can be used. We will also highly consider large coffee producing countries such as Brazil, Vietnam, and Columbia since governments in developing nations can better establish and enforce environmental and labor standards. For producers like us, developing countries offer multinational corporations a competitive cost advantage compared to manufacturing in highly industrialized countries as we will have the benefit of cheap labor and low operating costs. Many of these nations are also densely populated with men and women looking for paid work of any kind.
Equally, the USDA invested $26 million to build infrasturcture to expand the availability of higher-blend renewable biofuels by 822 million gallons annually in 23 states. They also made funding available through the Higher Blends Infrasturcutre Incentive Program (HBIIP), which seeks to market higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel by sharing the costs to build and retrofit biofuel-related infrastructure such as pumps, dispensers and storage tanks. Additionally, they announced in June of 2022 that it had provided $700 million in relief funding to more than 100 biofuel producers in 25 states who experienced market losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All these factors are incredibly important to consider for plant location as this plant will still not be at the scale required to achieve the lowest price per gallon of biodiesel made. Rather, it is at the point where — if strategically located, will still be economically viable as an investment.
Step #3: Facilities For Wide Spread Implementation
With both the prototype as a proof-of-concept and the model plant as a proof-of-concept-at-scale, CleanBean will now be able to create plants on the order of 500 mW to achieve the most impact. These plants will be located around the world, preferably where there is a large demand or biodiesel mandate(to make the enterprise more profitable) as Germany is known for being Europes number one automotive market. Countries that are large consumers of coffee should focus on attaching small-scale biofuel production plants to coffee chains and supermarkets. By doing so, the local economy is expected to rise because the coffee chain owners will get a chance to prepare their own fuel. The fact that they are at such scale and supplied with on-site or nearby renewable energy whenever possible, means that — in addition to selling the produced biodiesel— these plants will be economically incentivized on the whole.
Standard procedures will be established for determining the location of new plants and all the necessary steps to get them up and running within the shortest time possible. While we will build plants in more wherever they make the most sense, CleanBean will also be advertised to governments and industries as a solution with both economic benefit and one that demonstrates their commitment to climate action. In order to achieve a target emissions reduction of 2.5 million tons of methane per year by the year 2050, about 400 plants(ranging in size) operating at 500 mW will need to be constructed.
6. Our Impact
6.1 Positive Externalities
On a global scale, by preventing 23 million tons of coffee ground from being wasted in landfills, CleanBean has the potential to sequester over 2.5 million tons of methane per year and meet more than 40% (more than 1.4 million tons of biodiesel) of the global demand for biofuel.
Methane is the most potent gas that leads to climate change, being 23% worse than CO2. The removal of this hazardous gas will economically benefit countries as in 2019, climate change contributed to extreme weather events causing at least $100 billion in damages. Furthermore, a 2017 survey of independent economists looking at the effects of climate change found that future damage estimates range “from 2% to 10% or more of global GDP per year.
By significantly cutting the cost needed to extract the oils for biofuel, it is clear that the process could make spent coffee grounds a much more commercially competitive source of fuel. With cheaper and more eco-friendly biodiesel, countries with extreme dependency on biofuel could have a better source of energy to power their country. The resulting fuel also has a major advantage in being more stable than traditional biodiesel due to coffee’s high antioxidant content. Solids left over from the conversion can be converted to ethanol or used as compost and this process could make a profit of more than $8 million a year in the U.S. alone within the first pilot session, says a group of researchers from Nevada.
7. Conclusion
Our Earth is in great danger with the presence of climate change. Our vision is to recycle & reuse the global waste and create a world where we can still use our everyday automotive vehicles and continue to help the planet in small but meaningful ways. We believe our solution, through its complexity, is the answer to a pressing and unnoticed problem affecting global warming. With CleanBean, the use of spent coffee grounds as a feedstock for the rapidly growing biofuel industry has the potential to become a large-scale reality and make a substantial impact.
