I was cruising around various other coffee news websites when I ran across an ad for Java-Logs.  According to the ad copy, the Java-Log was invented when their inventor was "flipping through an engineering textbook" and noticed a bit about how coffee grounds have more "energy capacity" than cordwood when combusted.  (By "energy capacity" I assume it means BTUs.)

The inventor found a way to collect, dry, and compress coffee grounds into a fire log.  At about $3.50 per log, Java-Logs are comparable in price to their competitors like Presto-Logs.  And they are unquestionably better for the environment.

The very existence of the Java-Log brings up an excellent point, which is that our national obsession with coffee has a significant ecological footprint.  Not only in the agriculture side, but on the waste side as well.  Here in the Pacific Northwest at least it is common for Starbucks and other coffee stores to bag up their old grounds and set them beside the front door, free to anyone who wants them.  But I wonder, how many people do?  

Personally I compost all of my coffee grounds, but I'm fortunate to live on property where I can keep a compost pile.  I know that coffee grounds are a popular addition straight to the garden here in the Northwest, because they repel slugs.  (They really do - I've run tests.  The slugs won't cross a barrier of coffee grounds, most likely because of the acidity.)

Several major cities have composting or green waste programs, which can handle coffee grounds nicely.  Coffee grounds compost well, and are a great soil amendment!  But what about the rest?  A lot of coffee shops have no choice but to throw their used coffee grounds straight into the trash.

Java-Logs currently divert 12 million pounds of coffee grounds from the landfill each year, and even accounting for the usual marketing hyperbole, that's a pretty staggering number.  Especially when you consider that this must be only a small fraction of the coffee grounds going to the landfill across the country every year!

The idea of Java-Logs got me thinking.  If coffee grounds have that many BTUs compared to wood, then couldn't they be used for even more than a simple decorative fire?  It turns out that the answer is yes, and a lot of clever people are working on creating biofuels from coffee.

What gives spent coffee grounds their great energy release possibilities is the oil which is leftover from the coffee bean.  According to this Fast Company article, "spent coffee grounds have around 11% to 20% of oil remaining inside.  That figure compares well with more useful biofuels like palm, rapeseed and soybeans."

As fanciful as it might sound to drop your used coffee filter into your gas tank, naturally the grounds have to be prepped to become biofuel.  This process extracts the oil from the waste grounds (so I guess the waste of the waste grounds has to be composted somehow?) which can then be used the same as diesel.

Imagine the boon for independent coffee houses if they could sell off their waste grounds to be used in biodiesel.   Maybe some day your cup of coffee will be subsidized by a biodiesel firm!