We all know coffee powers us. Now, it\u2019s helping to power the planet. Thankfully, it can no longer get you executed.<\/p>\n
Starting with that last part, NPR\u2019s Adam Cole just recounted the history of coffee prohibition, including 17th-century Ottoman ruler Sultan Murad IV\u2019s habit of walking around Istanbul dressed as a commoner so he could personally decapitate coffee drinkers with his hundred-pound broadsword.<\/p>\n
Murad apparently thought coffee would inspire indecent behavior. Other rulers also banned the drink out of fear it would roil the populace.<\/p>\n
In 17th-century England, however, wives reportedly complained that coffee sapped their husbands\u2019 ability to be suitably indecent with them.<\/p>\n
Flash forward to 21st-century North Dakota, where the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota is leading a project to turn coffee-processing waste into energy.<\/p>\n
The center is working with Vermont-based energy solutions company Wynntryst produce synthetic gas from coffee residues, plastic packaging, paper, cloth or burlap, and plastic cups coming out of Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Green Mountain sells Keurig individual coffee cups and supplies coffee products to Starbucks and McDonald\u2019s, among others.<\/p>\n
The \u201csyngas\u201d would then be used in an internal combustion engine or a fuel cell to produce electricity and heat or be converted to high-value biofuels or chemicals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EERC system has already produced power by gasifying forest residues, railroad tie chips, turkey litter, and other biomass feedstocks and burning the produced syngas in an on-site engine generator,\u201d center Deputy Associate Director for Research Chris Zygarlicke said in a news release. \u201cThe coffee industry residues will be similarly tested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Based on the outcome of the pilot project, the center plans to propose a full-scale system for use at various Green Mountain sites.<\/p>\n
Speaking of beverages that incite people and can be used for power, Edinburgh Napier University\u2019s Biofuel Research Centre just launched Celtic Renewables Ltd, a company intended to commercialize a process for producing biofuel made from whisky by-products.<\/p>\n
The \u201cbiobutanol\u201d is made from \u201cpot ale,\u201d the liquid from the copper stills, and \u201cdraff,\u201d the spent grains. It can be used as a direct replacement for gasoline, or as a blend, without engine modification, and with less emissions, according to the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cScotland\u2019s whisky has a world-wide reputation for excellence and generates huge benefits for our economy,\u201d Fergus Ewing MSP, Scotland\u2019s minister for Energy, Enterprise & Tourism, said in a news release. \u201cIt\u2019s fitting, then, that the by-products of this industry are now being used in an area where we have so much promise \u2013 sustainable biofuels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visit seattlepi.com\u2019s home page for more Seattle news.<\/p>\n
via Coffee no longer grounds for beheading | Seattle’s Big Blog – seattlepi.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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