Spent Coffee Grounds as a Versatile Source of Green Energy

Forget vegetable oil, little green fungus or most recently, human fat. University of Nevada Reno scientists are banking on a new form of biodiesel -- one that's more stable, easily producible and smells like a fresh cup of Joe when expelled. Yep, that's right. Coffee beans are being tested as the latest biodiesel derivative. And by some estimations, the new biofuel could save the world hundreds of millions of gallons in regular fuel usage if produced on a global scale.

How'd scientists figure this out? Well, like most epic discoveries, it was by accident. Professor Mano Misra happened to leave his coffee out overnight and noticed a ring of oil on the cup the next morning. Intrigued, he and his team extracted the oil and found that coffee beans contain 10-15% oil by weight. Using their trusty chemistry kits (more like state of the art labs), they then successfully converted the oil into biodiesel.

UNR scientists believe with the low cost of conversion and abundance of expelled coffee grounds from national coffee chains (i.e. Starbucks), their biodiesel can be produced for around $1 per gallon. The fuel is also said to be more stable than biodiesel made from soy beans or corn.