Turning coffee by-product into green energy
This joint venture is a successful and genuine example of a short circuit circular loop where Veolia and Jacobs Douwe Egberts developed a solution to use spent coffee grounds from the plant’s production process to produce steam. The Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) plant located in Joure, in the Netherlands, uses coffee grounds as biofuel to produce the energy needed for its operation. In order to generate an important amount of steam necessary for the production of the soluble coffee, Veolia and JDE came up with the solution: replace natural gas with spent coffee grounds. Roasting coffee beans produce a large amount of residue that is now used to generate steam for operating the plant, instead of being sent to landfill.
Added value in terms of waste reduction, reuse of materials, emission reductions:
- A unique drying and combustion process allowing the production of steam, by recovering by-product;
- 33,000 metric tons of spent coffee grounds residue recycled per year;
- 14,000 tons of CO2 avoided annually, which is equivalent to a 70% reduction in its annual emissions;
- Optimisation of the energy invoice and production costs.