Coffee firm converts waste to energy...

Via Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:21:00 08/09/2008

Spent Coffee Grounds are used to generate energy in the Cagayan de Oro factory of leading coffee brand Nescafe.

The Nestle CDO factory’s atmospheric fluidized bed boiler (AFBB) is a state-of-the-art technology that burns and recycles spent coffee grounds into bunker fuel, which the factory uses for its operations. Spent coffee grounds are the remains of ground roasted coffee after extraction.

“Because we burn less oil in generating steam, the AFBB helps reduce environmental pollution and save energy costs,” says Ed Legasto, senior vice president of Nestle Philippines Inc. and manager of the Cagayan de Oro factory.

He said that by using biomass or the spent coffee grounds as substitute for bunker fuel, “we prevent emission of air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which are natural by-products arising from the combustion of fossil fuels.”