Ford is building car parts with recycled coffee bean waste

MANILA: Ford is taking steps to address climate change by exploring the use of innovative materials and alternatives. This time they’re looking at food waste, specifically: coffee waste. Ford will be partnering with McDonald’s to transform the fast-food giant’s pounds of coffee chaff (dried coffee bean skin) into car parts.

 

According to Ford, they will be diverting the waste from a landfill to Ford’s laboratory where it will be engineered into bioplastics. Not only do the two companies aim for this new effort to reduce food waste, but to ultimately make car parts lighter, therefore consuming less petroleum and lowering CO2 emissions.

Coffee chaff has heat properties that allow it to be easily converted into durable material that is ideal for reinforcing certain vehicle parts. To form the molds, the chaff is heated at high temperatures under low oxygen. Plastic and other additives are then mixed in, turning it into pellets which allow the material to be formed into various shapes.

Ford is planning to use the chaff for interior car components and under the hood. Car parts are expected to be 20% lighter, which is better for fuel efficiency, resulting in a 25% energy savings for Ford during production. According to Ford, the first component that will be composed of coffee chaff will be headlamp housings.

They added that the chaff composite meets the quality specifications for the parts mentioned. In fact, they mentioned that chaff components have performed significantly better compared to the material they are currently using.

“They are more durable because the chaff composite can withstand heat better,” says Debbie Mielewski, senior technical leader of Ford’s sustainability and emerging materials research team.

McDonald’s will be directing a significant share of its coffee chaff waste in North America to Ford to use for their vehicle parts. Each headlight housing will using chaffs from approximately 300,000 beans. Ford has also partnered with Competitive Green Technologies to process the coffee chaff.

This is Ford’s first time venturing into the use of coffee beans for components. The automaker expressed that they will continue to work with McDonald’s in discovering more ways they can make use of the fast food giant’s waste into sustainable efforts.

“They must have a lot of ketchup discards — tomato skins and peels and seeds,” says Mielewski. “What about their French fry potato peels? We’re convinced we can probably do some chemistry and make something out of those as well.”

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