Oddly enough, London has begun to mix oil produced from coffee grounds into diesel and biofuels in order to decrease the production of toxic diesel fumes. Due to London’s history of smog and air pollution, transport companies are looking for new sources of energy. The company behind this project, Bio-bean, partnered with Royal Dutch Shell, a large oil company, to introduce their coffee-based oil for bus fuel. Bio-bean collects the 200,000 tons of used grounds produced as waste by Londoners and attempts “to reimagine waste as an untapped source.” City authorities want to make sure that the buses are being fueled by some type of blend of diesel and biofuel made from waste products. Another attempt to solve this problem is that the buses are now being powered by hybrid engines and in the future, have the buses run on electricity or hydrogen to eliminate exhaust fumes completely.

Despite lower taxes to drivers that use low-carbon diesel engines, London still has large concentrations of nitrogen oxide in the air.  Therefore, authorities have introduced a toxicity charge (T-charge) for people who drive vehicles, mostly old-diesel powered models, that do not meet the European Union emission standards. In a similar New York Times article, “London Adds Charge for Older Diesel Vehicles,” the authors explain that this was due to the scandal where large car companies, like Volkswagen, attempt to circumvent environmental standards. This charge is added on top of a longstanding congestion charge in which drivers have to pay a fee to drive in central London during busy hours of the week. The hopes are to decrease air pollution but this tax may also accelerate the decline in sales of old-diesel powered cars. Overall, despite the seemingly unorthodox way of fueling cars, it is clear that officials are taking an initiative in order to reduce emissions and improve air quality in London. They are doing this in the best way possible, which is using waste already created by the city and putting it to good use. Further research of costs for this procedure might make the idea more appealing to other urban centers around the world.

 

References:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/world/europe/london-coffee-buses.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&_r=0 (Alan Cowell)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/business/london-diesel-congestion-charge.html/