America runs on coffee—and soon so will its cars.
Ford Motor Company and McDonald’s have teamed up to turn coffee beans into vehicle parts.
Millions of pounds of coffee chaff—the dried skin of the bean that naturally detaches during roasting—accumulates every year. But instead of simply discarding the waste, McDonald’s and Ford found a way to recycle it.
Chaff, it turns out, can be converted into a durable material to reinforce certain vehicle parts, like headlamp housing or various interior components.
By heating the husks to high temperatures under low oxygen, mixing it with plastic and other additives, and turning it into pellets, the material can be molded into different shapes (using up to 25 percent less energy).
The resulting elements are about 20 percent lighter than traditional parts.
“This is an example of jump-starting the closed-loop economy, where different industries work together and exchange materials that otherwise would be side or waste products,” Debbie Mielewski, senior technical leader of Ford’s sustainability and emerging materials research team, said in a statement.
McDonald’s is expected to direct a “significant portion” of its North American coffee chaff to Ford. Exactly how much remains to be seen; there is no word on which vehicles or parts will be made from the refuse.
“Like McDonald’s, Ford is committed to minimizing waste and we’re always looking for innovative ways to further that goal,” according to Ian Olson, senior director of global sustainability at McD’s.
The project also involves Varroc Lighting Systems, which supplies headlamps, and Competitive Green Technologies, processor of the coffee chaff.
Coffee beans are good for more than your daily pick-me-up: High in energy, the ground seed waste can be blended with other fats and oils and mixed with mineral diesel to create a B20 biofuel—the perfect alternative to gasoline.
In 2017, clean-tech firm bio-bean and partner Argent Energy brewed nearly 1,600 gallons of B20—enough to power one of London’s famed double-decker buses for a year.
More on Geek.com:
- World’s Most Popular Coffee Species Are Going Extinct, Study Says
- These Vegan Shoes Are Made From Recycled Coffee Grounds
- McDonald’s Turns Billboards Into Bee Hotels
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