IDEAS Energy Contest: Coffee and Banana Waste to Ethanol
- Aims
- The general objective of this project is to contribute to the consolidation of coffee and banana production in Colombia, as a sustainable, competitive and efficient agricultural option, that will help farmers to improve their income and quality of life.
- Region
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Status
- Planning
- Summary
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Fundacion Entorno will design, construct and operate a pilot plant for the production of alcohol from coffee and banana residues with a daily capacity for 800 litres of hydrated ethanol.
This project is one of the award-winning projects of the 2009 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest for improving energy efficiency and expanding access to renewable energy. The contest is jointly sponsored by GVEP International, GTZ, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Korean Government. The main sponsors of
- Full Description
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The project is based on the idea of creating energy by using coffee waste products. This will be done by building a bio-ethanol plant. The plant will have a daily capacity of 800 litres. The hydrated ethanol which is produced will then be mixed with gasoline to create an environmentally friendly and cheaper source of fuel for cars.
The project is innovative as it seeks to use the waste from one of the largest agricultural sectors within Colombia to create energy. The construction and operation of bio-ethanol micro plants will offer new opportunities to SME’s. Additionally one of the largest obstacles to the proliferation of successful coffee farms is the problem of water pollution; the opportunity to reduce this problem has major benefit for small coffee farming businesses.
It is anticipated that the project will benefit 10,000 Microenterprises, 1000 small enterprises and 100,000 clients.
The project is highly scalable, the production of coffee is a key industry within Colombia and there is a lot of interest in this type of technology. It is predicted that after the 2 year of the project the first microenterprise would have produced 18000 tons of bio ethanol and experienced a 50% increase in sales.
Winner: Fundacion Entorno The programme will be led by Humberto Mazuera, an engineer who has worked for more than 30 years in the coffee industry. Humberto is widely experienced in directing environmental studies and planning production processes.
