Public Funding for Bio-Bean Limited

This project seeks to ascertain the feasibility of replicating bio-bean UK's industrial scale spent coffee recycling factory operation in Belgium/the Netherlands. It will do this by mapping the companies that are the potential major sources of large volumes of spent coffee grounds (SCG) in North West Europe and enabling meetings to take place between bio-bean and these companies. It will identify potential locations for a bio-bean Belgium/Netherlands site through engagement with in-country property agents. It will shortlist potential North West Europe located major customers for the bio-bean products to be produced by the Belgium/Netherlands factory and enable meetings to take place with these potential customers. Finally, it will produce a report with simple financials into the viability of such a factory operation. bio-bean's expansion into a European site represents significant growth for the company and the further utilisation of an undervalued and underutilised raw material and is therefore considered highly innovative.

bio-bean is the world's largest spent coffee ground (SCG) recycling company, currently processing c.7,500 tonnes of SCG per annum. SCG is a high-volume waste problem in the order of over 500,000 tonnes in the UK alone. SCG contains a variety of valuable residual chemical compounds which are currently being combusted in our solid biofuel products (pellets and briquettes (Coffee Logs)). To date bio-bean has been successful in extracting the flavour and fragrance (F&F) compounds from the SCG to produce an F&F proof of concept product. These F&F products are complimentary to the solid biofuel products but have a considerably higher sales price per tonne of SCG used in their manufacture, meaning their commercialisation can give bio-bean a major profitability boost allowing further expansion and greater opportunities to recycle SCG. The F&F products are likely to be used as ingredients in the food beverage (F&B) sector (specifically the ready to drink beverage market) which is growing and estimated to be worth $9bn globally. The project enables bio-bean to complete the late stage R&D required to commercialise the F&F products. bio-bean will manufacture its first two F&F products, an aqueous and lipid based natural flavour, through third party tolling companies and sell these products to its potential customers (F&F houses, product manufacturers and distributors), demonstrating market demand for disruptive, sustainable and innovative products from SCG. Successful demonstration of scaled production and market will enable bio-bean to invest in its own F&F product extraction and processing plant in the UK, to be sited alongside its solid biofuel plant, creating operational synergies, jobs, profits, CO2e savings and a reduction in the harmful effects of virgin coffee bean farming/petrochemical synthesis.

bio-bean is the world's largest spent coffee grounds (SCG) recycling company, currently reprocessing ~7,000 tonnes of SCG per annum into solid biofuels. The company has recently launched a natural flavour product extracted from food grade SCG. SCG is a high-volume waste problem in the order of over 500,000 tonnes in the UK alone, the disposal of which has a serious environmental impact. The bio-bean factory is unique in deploying its technology, in particular its drying technology, on an industrial scale to transform what was once a waste into a useful, sustainable material for a range of end products and uses. After considerable recent investment, the bio-bean factory now has the capacity to reliably reprocess in excess of 16,000t of SCG per annum. At present the SCG once dried is mixed with other bio-based residues and manufactured into the solid biofuels that bio-bean currently sells as coffee pellets and Coffee Logs. In the last 12 months bio-bean has been approached by various businesses wishing to use dried SCG in a wide range of potential large-scale applications. Each of these uses would see SCG, a biomaterial formerly considered a waste, replace a virgin material that must be specifically produced or extracted for these applications. The value of SCG/t when used in any one of these applications exceeds its value when used as a solid biofuel which makes developing the potential of SCG to be used in these applications an attractive commercial opportunity. However, in order for SCG to be used consistently and at the potential scale for which market demand exists it needs to be dried to a far more specific and narrower product specification than that which the SCG for solid biofuel purposes meets and the particle size of the grounds reduced. This project therefore seeks to develop bio-bean's SCG drying capability so that it can dry its SCG to the required product specification and to do this consistently, taking into account the wide range of feedstock characteristics which arise as a result of the SCG feedstock being a waste. Further the project will research, test and develop a scaled method to reduce the particle size of the dried SCG.

BB is the first company in the world to have industrialised the process of recycling waste coffee grounds into advanced biofuels. BB’s pioneering business model and innovative technology have attracted widespread attention in the energy, recycling and coffee industries as well as the mainstream media both nationally and internationally. This is BB’s first international project and will focus on the potential to build advanced biorefineries for instant coffee factories around Europe.

Bio-Bean (BB) currently has contracts with coffee producers to receive their waste coffee grounds (WCG), diverting it from landfill and processing it into biomass pellets. High value coffee oil is imported and used in the UK for fragrance, flavouring, pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. Coffee oil is currently extracted from virgin beans, an expensive and wasteful process as the beans are subsequently discarded. BB’s strategic aim is to step change their business by adding a high value material (coffee oil) extraction stage to their process. This extraction process has already been proven at lab-scale. This project, with partners from the whole supply chain, will recover high value coffee oil from WCG and create a new disruptive market for natural coffee oil, manufactured in the UK from UK waste.

The UK coffee industry (cafés and instant coffee factories) produce 485kT/yr of Used Coffee Grounds (UCG), of which over 90% are landfilled or incinerated, costing the UK coffee industry £79.8m/yr (Fairtrade, 2012). Alongside the need to reduce landfill, the UK, EU and coffee companies need to valorise waste and reduce emissions but are struggling to meet targets (Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2014). The UK’s Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) has contributed to 4.9million T/yr UK consumption of wood biomass pellets, over 80% of which are imported, mainly from N. America - costing the UK £1.2bn/yr (Biomass Energy Centre, 2013). Furthermore, wood crops compete with land and food production (Gov.uk, 2011), creating a growing demand for locally-sourced Advanced Biofuels (derived from waste). Bio-Bean have proven the concept of a closed-loop, commercial model to manufacture Advanced biomass heating pellets from UCG. Bio-Bean’s model and technology have attracted widespread coffee company, media and sustainability industry attention both nationally and internationally and have been endorsed by parties including Shell, UKTI, the Mayor of London, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC). This project will allow Bio-Bean to develop a prototype of the processing plant and conduct full-scale trials to demonstrate scalability to potential investors and customers who have already expressed interest.

bio-bean is a cradle-to-cradle green energy company which collects used coffee grounds, and, through an innovative new process, converts them into both biodiesel and biomass pellets.