Why composite? Why let the worms get the kick!

Coffee Exports Brings US$ 9.4 Billion
to Brazil in 4 Years
According to data just released by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Brazil produced 143.6 million bags of coffee from 2003 to 2006. From that total, 103.1 million were exported, generating a US$ 9.4 billion revenue in the period.
According to a government official, the budget of the Coffee Economy Defense Fund (Funcafé) was US$ 1.9 billion between 2003 and 2006, of which US$ 7.6 million went into advertising and US$ 15.5 million went into research. The funds of Funcafé invested in research included the genome sequencing work developed by Embrapa.
"The sequencing will allow for Embrapa to detect, for example, the strengths of different varieties of coffee regarding their resistance to drought, to plagues and diseases, their flavor, aroma, and productivity," explained Costa Lima. The information was supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Brazil should produce 41.6 million 60 kg bags of coffee this year, according to a study by the National Food Supply Company (Conab). The volume represents growth of 26.2%, or 8.6 million bags more than in the previous harvest, which totaled 32.94 million bags.
On the other hand, a research by the Federal University of Minas Gerais shows that coffee may be a source for production of biodiesel, according to information published earlier this year. Biodiesel may be produced from coffee oil, made from damaged coffee grains, which are not used for human consumption.

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The Nevada-based team recently pointed out that one barrier to greater eco-friendly biofuel use is a missing source of high-quality, low-cost fuel-producing material, which is where coffee enters the frame. By weight, spent coffee grounds have around 11% to 20% of oil remaining inside. That figure compares well with more usual biofuels like palm, rapeseed and soybean.
The team estimates that of the 16 billion pounds of coffee bean grown annually--which when spent ends in the trash or on compost heaps--up to 340 million gallons of biodiesel could be made. To demonstrate this, they collected used grounds from one multinational coffee house, extracted the oil and used a cheap-to-run process to turn it into biodiesel with 100% conversion efficiency.

Because it's packed with antioxidants, the resulting coffee-fuel is actually more stable than some other biodiesels.

It sounds like a complete win-win: a trashed product makes a biofuel cheaply, the environment benefits, and the spare products from biofuel-making can be used to make ethanol or compost. Best of all--the fuel actually smells like coffee.