Department of Chemical Engineering

EASTERN VISAYAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Main Campus-Tacloban City

BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM WASTE COFFEE GROUNDS

By
MICAH MAE E. MORBOS
LYRIENE KIETH PINAS
FLOILA JANE YMAS
BSChE-5A

A PROGRESS REPORT for

A Conceptual Undergraduate Plant Design (ChE 523) submitted to

JUVYNEIL ECHON CARTEL, MEngg ChE
Adviser

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering

December 1, 2016

Biodiesel Production from Waste Coffee Grounds

Chapter I
Introduction
1.1 Design Background
1.1a Biodiesel
Biodiesel is an alternative made from renewable biological sources such as
vegetable oils and animal fats. It is biodegradable, nontoxic and has low emission
profiles making it environmentally benign (Chaturvedi, Mande, Rajan, & Kundu,
2013) . Vegetable oil mixed with methanol yields biodiesel through the reaction of
trans-esterification, whereby glycerin is separated from used vegetable oil via a
caustic catalyst. The methyl-ester product, once purified, is known as biodiesel, while
the glycerin by-product can be used as an environmentally friendly commercial
degreaser.
The combustion of biodiesel is more complete and efficient that of diesel or
gasoline hence the process releases less carbon monoxide, the most prevalent air
pollutant whose main source happens to be non-ideal combustion. For human health
as well as for environmental concerns, biodiesel is obviously a rational choice. It is a
substantial step towards creation and diversification of energy sources therefore
addressing the urgent and conflicting issues of rising energy demand and global
warming.
1.1b Waste Coffee Grounds
Increasingly waste resources are being investigated as feedstocks for
alternative fuel production. Waste coffee grounds (WCGs), has some advantages over
other recycled inputs such as used frying oils, for WCGs are largely an untapped
resource. Therefore giving it much potential in terms of increase of the overall
biodiesel production.
Within the past few years, researchers have developed a method of extracting
oil from WCG. Quantitative testing has revealed that oil can be extracted from spent
coffee grounds at rates between 10-15%. There are many benefits to using WCG as a
feedstock for biodiesel, resulting in a potential of 208-million gallons of additional

Biodiesel Production from Waste Coffee Grounds

fuel per year based on global coffee consumption (Cushman, Jones, Oltman, &
Sorrentino, 2009).
One interesting benefit is the stability of oil derived from coffee due to the
higher anti-oxidant levels present in the material. The resulting increase in shelf-life
makes coffee-based biodiesel suitable for industrial operations (defined as stable for at
least one month). Once the oil has been extracted and converted, the now twiceprocessed feedstock may be further utilized as normal. This includes pressing into fuel
pellets, ethanol feedstock, or using as compost/fertilizer.
1.2 Design Objective
The objective of this study is to design a commercial biodiesel
manufacturing/production plant whose unit operations and processes are energyefficient and cost-effective which will prevent pollution and decrease the countrys
dependency on foreign oil by using locally available waste coffee ground as
feedstock. The manufactured biodiesel will be a good source of renewable fuel.
1.3 Design Scope and Limitations
The scope of this project is only limited to devise a technical study regarding
the availability of raw materials, construct a company management strategy, and
identify marketing options for the biodiesel produced and for all the potential byproducts. In addition, the study identifies technical, economic and environmental
aspects affecting the location of a successful plant for the production of biodiesel.