Palm | Kelapa Sawit

"It's a very simple two-step process," said Susanta Mohapatra, a chemical engineer at the University of Nevada, Reno. "We can definitely make a big impact on our environment with fuel made out of nature." The idea of using another "Crop" to fuel our cars might not be a bad idea, but would it be efficient and effective?

It is a known fact among scientist that Coffe beans contain oil but Mohapatra and her colleagues are the first to analyze Coffe grounds to pursue the idea of harnessing energy out of Coffe. the idea is not very different then the biodiesel idea but at least it is considered thinking outside the box.

The experiment carried by Mohapatra and her colleagues started with drying Coffe grounds in an oven. They mixed the resulting powder with a combination of solvents that caused the oil to separate from the solution. They extracted the oil, saving the solvents for the next round of processing. The remains could still be used as compost, ethanol feedstock, and fuel pellets.

The idea sounds interesting, if this goes through, most people might fuel their morning and their cars at Starbucks!

Source: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/20/coffee-biofuel.html

Mohammed Al Saif