Once we brew ourselves a cup of espresso, in keeping with Kaffe Bueno, we utilise a mere 1% of the vitamins discovered within the espresso’s biomass. Once we throw away the espresso grounds, the diet rots away, depriving us of useful fat, proteins, antioxidants and different vitamins, and releasing carbon dioxide and methane whereas it’s at it.
Kaffe Bueno, with its new biorefinery in Rødovre, goals to cease this from occurring, turning the wasted espresso grounds into meals and beauty merchandise for consumption and thereby stopping emissions.
The biorefinery, which has €2.5 million backing from the European Innovation Council, can upcycle 500 tons of espresso grounds every year.
“A number of the meals substances in our portfolio embody prebiotic fibre (soluble and insoluble), antioxidants, clean-label caramel colors, structured fat/emulsifiers, and an encapsulation agent for bioactives and probiotics,” Juan Pablo Medina, Kaffe Bueno’s CEO and Co-Founder, advised FoodNavigator.
Lowering emissions
In addition to creating merchandise, the biorefinery additionally works to stop the emissions that might have come from the espresso grounds had they not been upcycled. One of many greenhouse gasses espresso grounds normally emits is methane, which is 25 instances stronger than CO2.
“We forestall this from occurring,” Medina advised us, “On this biorefinery, by utilizing inexperienced chemistry and biotechnology we rework this by-product into totally different inputs/substances for private care, human and animal diet and agriculture.”
The biorefinery can also be in a position to preserve emissions low in different methods. “The great thing about our answer is that not solely can we cut back the emissions related to espresso disposal however most significantly those related to the substances we’re changing in our buyer’s formulations.
“On account of the truth that we don’t have any further land (normally farming represents the most important CO2 emissions within the worth chain) plus the modern and sustainable nature of our biorefinery processes, our substances have at the least 80% much less emissions than present than present options.”
Enlargement
The biorefinery, which opened in Denmark on 29 September, has the potential to develop as much as 1,500 tons per yr of manufacturing. This isn’t the fruits of Kaffe Bueno’s efforts, however solely the start.
“Our focus proper now’s on delivering merchandise from newly opened biorefinery, nonetheless, because of the provision of spent espresso all all over the world, we’re presently additionally speaking to totally different potential companions in Germany, Netherlands, US and South America to doubtlessly set up the following biorefinery there,” Medina advised us.
“This industrial biorefinery can have a capability of at the least 15,000 tons. The choice on this location will rely upon various factors and shall be determined subsequent yr.”
