A coffee-waste treatment plant in the Cauca Valley in Colombia, is going to produce bioethanol, bringing not only social benefits, but also environmental and economic benefits to communities. 
This plant will produce between 800 and 1000 liters per day of bioethanol with the mucilage of coffee.
Mucilage is the syrup removed when washing the coffee bean. It is a viscous substance that has traditionally contaminated water sources in the coffee-producing areas of the Cauca Valley, in southwest Colombia. This can now be used to produce a more environmentally-friendly fuel.
“River pollution is a long-standing issue in the coffee-growing sector”, claims Humberto Mazuera, head of the Fundación Entorno in Colombia. Over the past two years he has been developing a project with his son, Oscar, an expert engineer in renewable energy, which makes use of the coffee waste products to produce ethanol in the Municipalities of Sevilla and Caicedonio in the Cauca Valley.
This project is one of the 26 winners of the IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest launched in 2009 by GVEP thanks to funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The construction of a micro-plant able to produce bioethanol from the coffee mucilage is expected to have a positive environmental impact by significantly reducing the river pollution.
Recycling the production waste will also offer new income generating opportunities for coffee producers, as they will be able to sell it to the plant, while avoiding the fine charged by the Ministry of Environment each time they empty the waste into the river.
Recycling of the mucilage will generate social, economic and environmental benefits.
The Fundación Entorno has chosen the Pijao river, running through the Municipality of Caicedonia and down in Cauca Valley to set up a treatment plant to absorb the waste products. With 18,000 hectares of coffee-sown land concentrated on its banks, this is one the worst affected river in the area.
Thanks to the US$192,000 awarded by the IDEAS Contest, the construction of the plant has recently been completed and they have reached the testing stage to begin producing bioethanol from coffee mucilage. “It is a small, low-cost plant, but its production process meets the same protocols as a large ethanol-producing plant”, explains Oscar Mazuera.
According to their calculations, the plant will be capable of producing between 800 and 1,000 litres of bioethanol per day. In order to achieve this they will need 8,000 to 12,000 litres of mucilage per day, something that the Mazueras do not consider to be difficult given that they are focussing on a 450m2 of coffee-growing land.
The bioethanol produced by the plant will be used to power 20-25 5kW generators to produce energy for farms and homes in rural areas; or as a fuel for stoves specially designed for use with bioethanol.
Humberto Mazuera is reaching out to coffee-growers in the area through the various coffee growers associations, which have a vested interest in supporting the initiative. They are aware that “they are not taking full advantage of the by-product of coffee”, as Alexandra Mejía, of the National Federation of Coffee Growers, explains.
The Fundación Entorno has held a series of initial meetings in the Municipalities of Sevilla and Caicedonio and has met 100 of the 1900 possible beneficiaries and although the tests are yet to be completed, it appears to have been well-received. “People are aware that there is a need”, says Mazuera, “and according to them this is a possible way of improving the production process, which will allow them to certify their coffee”. Coffee certification could mean an increase in its market value.
One of the coffee-growers who would benefit is Oscar Jaramillo, who has been growing coffee for 28 years in the Municipality of Sevilla, although coffee-growing has been around since the days of his grandparents. He is hopeful, because “this is environmental work and with the extra income we can build coffee driers”.
The project has already recovered 3’600,000 cubic meters of the sub-basin of the Pijao River.
Jaramillo has a five hectare plantation, with three hectares of coffee and two of banana trees, with 200 avocado trees. He has a small piece of land and normally tips the mucilage onto the banana plantations, but “in winter the water causes flooding and other problems, although this is worse on the larger plantations”.
To begin with, while tests are carried out in the plant, the coffee-growers will contribute by giving their mucilage, but afterwards this will be bought by the Fundación Entorno and the profits will be in accordance with the size of the plantations.
Jaramillo, like many coffee-growers in the Valley says that he is interested, despite the fact that they haven’t had a chance to see the plant in action yet or test what the final product will be like”.
Fundación Entorno will be engaging in a process of environmental restructuring, because they will produce more than just bioethanol. “We will take the mucilage, before it goes to water sources, we take it to the plant and convert it into ethanol”, explains Humberto Mazuera and continues, “Once we have completed the process of fermentation and distillation there will be a residue, which we will convert into fertilizer and also into a food supplement for the farmers’ livestock”.
“ GVEP is very aware of the challenges this project faces, but the Fundación Entorno are betting on the fact that this is a second generation biofuel where there is no competition from food sources,” says Diana de la Vega, Manager for GVEP in Colombia.
“This project offers answers to on-going environmental pollution problems, while also helping small-scale coffee-growers to improve their quality of life and increase their profits. And hopefully, it will be encouraging the future development of other companies with a similar vision in the field of cleaner energy”.
As it will be producing energy and by-products, the project will monitor the water quality of the Pijao River, something that has also caught the interest of Acuavalle, the local drinking water company. “They are very interested in our project because they are interested in having clean water sources, so that they can supply clean water to agricultural workers and coffee-growers” points out Humberto Mazuera andhe assures that “the project annually avoids the contamination of an average of 3’600,000 m3 of water of the sub-basin on the river Pijao”.
The biggest challenge is to achieve a complete conversion, where there is no waste at all stages of the process. Achieving this “will resolve a problem that coffee-growers have been battling with for ages”, says Humberto Mazuera.
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