A Cup of Coffee with a Side Order of Ethanol, Please ').insertBefore('.post > .entry'); digg_related({domain:"ecolocalizer.com",container:"#digg-related",width:"",height:"",endPoint:"stories/upcoming"});}//-->
By now, we’ve all heard about the environmental and social costs of large-scale coffee farming: lost biodiversity, unfairly reimbursed farmers, pesticide pollution and more. another downside, though, might be less familiar: ecosystem damage caused by coffee-processing wastewater.
According to the EPA, “The wastewater produced from the wet-processing of coffee places a heavy burden on the local ecosystems. Currently, there are few environmentally sound measures that monitor the discharge of this effluent. It is often discarded in a manner that disrupts both streams and the local water supplies.”
What’s the solution? A team of students at Appalachian State University, located in Boone, North Carolina, think they might have the answer. you might call it (as the EPA has) “fair-trade ethanol.”
Working with an EPA People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) grant, students Kristan Cockerill, Jeremy Ferrell, Jack Martin, Jeff Ramsdell and Susan Winston are working to find out whether coffee pulp and coffee-processing wastewater could be used to produce biofuels. They’re looking at two options: producing ethanol by distillation, or producing methane by anaerobic digestion.
The team’s research is being supported by a $10,000 P3 grant that runs through August of next year.
“If successful, this project could dramatically improve the sustainability of coffee production,” says the EPA. “It addresses some of the major concerns confronting human beings today in unique and innovative ways. The scarcity of potable water, healthy streams and waterways, and supplies of energy are of paramount importance to people around the globe. this is especially true of peoples that inhabit the developing world where a majority of the world’s coffee is grown and processed.”