Agricultural residues from the coffee industry could become an alternative source of electricity thanks to research conducted by the Universidad del Valle (Univalle).
Coffee pulp represents 43.6% of the wet weight of the cherry coffee bean, resulting in approximately two and a half million tons of pulp and 420,000 tons of mucilage (the gelatinous layer covering the seed) available for biogas feedstock being dumped in open fields.
Yessenia Martínez-Ruiz, an industrial engineer and current doctoral researcher at Univalle, explained that uncertainty in rainfall due to changing weather conditions means more interruptions in the hydroelectric power that provides most of Colombia's electricity.
"The goal is to motivate, not only coffee farmers, but also other farmers with waste," Martinez-Ruiz explained, adding that there is great untapped energy potential.
In May 2022, in the paper called "Evaluation of Energy Potential from Coffee Pulp in a Hydrothermal Power Market through System Dynamics: The Case of Colombia," published in the journal Sustainability, the researchers showed a generation potential from coffee pulp of 177 GWh per year and an energy generation of 11,250 GWh and 7537 GWh with solar and wind resources, respectively, by 2030.
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| Photo: Coffee selection in a Colombian farm. Credit: Esteban Largo |
The Research
Beyond the threat of the hydroelectric system, around 7 million Colombians are beyond the reach of this energy source, i.e., non-interconnected zones (ZNI for the initials in Spanish), where electricity generation from biogas can replace sources such as fossil fuels and will lower levels of agricultural waste.Biogas is composed mainly of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and is produced from the decomposition of organic matter in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic environment). The biogas produced is then used to generate electricity.
In the scientific publication, the researchers highlighted the potential of this waste for electricity generation and concluded that coffee waste would be an attractive option for electricity production.
"Considering the high levels of cherry coffee production in Colombia, coffee processing residues can be used for energy purposes," said Martinez-Ruiz.
Professor Howard Ramirez, director of the Applied Chemical and Biological Processes Research Group (BIOQUIMAP) and a co-author of the scientific publication said that Colombia generates a high volume of agricultural and agro-industrial waste; therefore, it has access to various types of biomass.
"In particular, Colombia is one of the largest coffee producers in the world, and this particular study employed system dynamics to evaluate the energy potential of cherry coffee pulp and analyze trends in energy supply for different energy sources in climate vulnerability scenarios," Prof. Ramirez said.
Read more from the School of Industrial Engineering: Researchers And Professional Recyclers Improve Quality of Life For All
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| Image: Diagram of the energy potential of coffee pulp. Credit: Martinez-Ruiz et al 2022 |
Benefits of international colaboration
Between June and August 2022, Martinez-Ruiz also did an internship at the Technische Universität Berlin in Germany to further his doctoral research, thanks to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).Prof. Ramirez explained that his research group has had a collaboration of approximately 10 years Prof. Peter Neubauer, the Chair of Bioprocess Engineering, en el departamento de biotecnología de TU Berlín and the Doctor Stefan Junne, group leader of one of its lines of research.
"The Martinez-Ruiz internship is the fruit of this collaboration, where the potential of both institutions line up and in this particular case, the extensive experience in the production of biogas from waste and the financial evaluation of this type of projects," explained Profe Ramirez.
Martinez-Ruiz agrees.
"The internship was the most enriching experience because my work in Colombia, everything was from a literature review," Martinez-Ruiz said, adding that the experience in Germany is more hands-on, for example, generating biogas in the laboratory.
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