A new approach to coffee grounds might be capable of doing a lot of good for the climate.

What’s happening:

• Danish startup Kaffe Bueno has launched the world’s first coffee biorefinery facility which aims to convert coffee byproducts into valuable compounds
• The new facility was supported with a €2.5M grant from the European Innovation Council

How it works:

• Coffee grounds are filled with fatty acids, proteins, antioxidants and many healthy compounds
• Through chemistry and nanotechnology Kaffe breaks down coffee into its molecular components
• Those molecular components can then be up cycled into active ingredients for purposes such as soil and crop health, nutraceuticals and even gut health for animals

Why it matters:

• Upcycling coffee into potentially valuable inputs for other products could play a role in transforming the paradigm that used coffee beans are simply waste

By the numbers:

• The new biorefinery facility in Copenhagen will have the potential to upcycle 500 tonnes of ground coffee annually
• Over time Kaffe believes they can increase that capacity to 1,500 tonnes per year

The intrigue:

• Kaffe Bueno has a partnership with 7-Eleven Denmark for protein rich pastries that use their proprietary upcycled ingredient from coffee by products known as ‘KAFFIBRE’