Starbucks Supports Biorefinery Project

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August 23, 2012

The City University of Hong Kong and Starbucks Hong Kong have joined forces to turn the chain’s food waste into bio-based products such as plastics, laundry detergents and perhaps other products.

At a presentation at the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia on Monday, Carol Lin, from the Hong Kong University presented her vision of what she called the “biorefinery."

"Our new process addresses the food waste problem by turning Starbucks' trash into treasure," Lin said in a statement. "The strategy reduces the environmental burden of food waste, produces a potential income from this waste and is a sustainable solution."

Starbucks Hong Kong donated funds to Lin’s research from customer purchases of a cookie gift set. The biorefinery blends food waste with fungi that help break down complex carbohydrates, transforming them into simple sugars. The resulting sugars are then fermented with bacteria that can turn that sugar into succinic acid, a compound that can be used to make detergents, flavors and fragrances.

Starbucks Hong Kong produces nearly 5,000 tons of used coffee grounds and waste bakery items each year, which is usually incinerated, composted or disposed of in landfills, according to a Planet Retail report. The waste is now diverted to the university to advance the research.

The biggest challenge is working to increase the scale of the process to produce high yields of useful succinic acid. Coffee grounds are also posing a challenge because they contain aromatic compounds that can inhibit the growth of the fungi.

Scientists at the University hope that food waste will replace current biofuel production methods that currently rely on corn.

"Using corn and other food crops for bio-based fuels and other products may not be sustainable in the long-run," Lin said. "Concerns exist that this approach may increase food prices and contribute to food shortages in some areas of the world."

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