Helping to power London’s buses with coffee
We believe that cleaner energy solutions can come from anywhere. Gravity. Footsteps. Even the food we eat. All it takes is a bright idea.
Watch: How coffee and a bright idea are helping power buses
Title: How coffee is helping to power buses
Duration: 60 seconds
Description:
What happens when you combine a bright idea and a lot of coffee waste? Discover how bio-bean, with the support of Shell, is using coffee waste to help power buses.
How coffee is helping to power buses Transcript
[Background music]
Emotive, gradually rising music plays.
[Video footage]
A public bus door opens
[Video footage]
People walk onto the bus
[Text displays]
Coffee and a bright idea are helping power buses
[Video footage]
Hands washing a portafilter, steaming milk
[Text displays]
The world drinks a lot of coffee
[Voice over]
A man’s voice says “the world drinks a lot of coffee”
[Video footage]
Steamed milk is being poured into a cup of espresso, cuts to a woman bringing a coffee cup up to her mouth to drink, someone else sitting on a bus drinking coffee
[Text displays]
That creates a lot of waste
[Voice over]
A man’s voice says “that creates a lot of waste”
[Video footage]
A man standing with a coffee cup outside a London bus, he walks onto the bus and sits down in a seat
[Background music]
The tempo of the music increases
[Video footage]
A barista cleans a portafilter of coffee grounds
[Text displays]
London alone produces
[Video footage]
A bag of waste coffee grounds displaying ‘bio-bean powered by coffee’ logo is carried
[Text displays]
200,000 tonnes* of waste coffee grounds every year
[Video footage]
A man sits alone in the back row of a London bus and speaks to camera
[Text displays]
Arhur Kay, Founder bio-bean
[Voice over]
I thought, what if we could do something meaningful?
[Text displays]
What if we could do something meaningful with that waste
[Video footage]
Two London buses pass one another on opposite sides of the street. The display on the sides of the bus reads: “Your coffee can now help power buses #makethefuture”
[Video footage]
A close up of the bus wheel is displayed as it drives past
[Text displays]
bio-bean uses waste coffee to help create sustainable biofuels
[Background music]
The tempo of the music increases
[Video footage]
The first bus drives away, and there is a close up of the front light on the bus behind it
[Text displays]
Now that fuel is helping power London buses
[Video footage]
Another bus pulls up to a stop in front of an office building. The display on the sides of the bus reads: “Your coffee can now help power buses #makethefuture”
[Voice over]
It’s not just about using plentiful waste product, it’s about creating
[Video footage]
Back to Arthur Kay sitting in the back row of a bus, speaking to camera
[Voice over]
more resilient cities
[Text displays]
more resilient cities
[Video footage]
A man against a green wall holds up a solar panel
[Text displays]
First Shell helped bring solar power
[Video footage]
Camera pans over a row of solar panels on a roof
[Video footage]
Musical artists Luan Santana and Yemi Alade and Pixie Lott performing on stage
[Text displays]
& music
[Video footage]
A Brazilian flag hanging outsdoors
[Text displays]
To a community in Rio de Janeiro
[Video footage]
A coffee cup with the London skyline cut out above the rim sits on a wooden table
[Text displays]
Your coffee can now help power buses
[Background music]
The background music fades
{Visual transition}
White screen with the Shell logo at the centre. Below the logo, text displays in black letters.
[Text displays]
Search #makethefuture for other bright energy ideas
[Audio]
The Shell mnemonic plays
For years coffee has been energising our morning commute. Today, thanks to the power of collaboration, it is helping to fuel London buses too.
Drinking over 20 million cups of coffee a day, Londoners can’t get enough of the stuff. However consumption on that scale brings with it a lot of waste. 200,000 tonnes of grounds are produced by the capital alone each year. Where some might see an issue of waste, bio-bean’s Arthur Kay saw potential.
While studying, Kay was determined to look differently at coffee culture and in particular the process of collecting and using coffee grounds.
High in calories, he recognised the energy potential it offered and the role it could play as a residential and industrial fuel source; instead turning waste into a valuable resource.
The result is bio-bean, today creating a coffee-derived B20 biofuel on a scale large enough to help power some of London’s buses - one of the busiest and most iconic networks in the world.
So how does bio-bean turn coffee into biofuel? The company’s factory can recycle 50,000 tonnes of waste coffee grounds each year. The coffee is sourced through partnerships with high street coffee shops and factories across the UK. From this coffee oil is extracted.
Blended with other fats and oils to create a 20% biocomponent, this is then mixed with mineral diesel to create a coffee-derived B20 biofuel.
Without modification, bio-bean’s biofuel is placed directly into select London buses, providing a smarter solution to the inevitable waste product of a metropolitan city. By rethinking waste, we can continue to decrease emissions from the transport sector through innovations in second-generation biofuels.
This has huge potential of this for a brighter energy future. Coffee makes up a component of the bio-fuel used in selected London buses today. But as a pure-blend, the 6,000 litres of coffee oil provided in this project by bio-bean would be enough to help power a bus for a year. What’s more, London produces enough waste coffee grounds to create a pure-blend B20 biofuel – made from coffee oil and mineral diesel – on a scale large enough to help fuel around a third of the London bus network.
So there it is. A simple coffee bean can transform your morning and now it could also help change the world. By collaborating to support bright energy solutions, we can together create a cleaner and brighter energy future.
All it takes is an idea.
Visit the Shell LiveWIRE website to find out more about how Shell is supporting bright entrepreneurs
More in make the future
Britain wakes up to the energy of coffee
Coffee that could also produce energy to help power the planet.
A new spin on efficiency
What if we could capture the wind created by passing cars with roadside turbines, and turn it into usable energy?