The "Zero Miles Product" Concept Applied to Biofuel Production: A Case Study

To make biofuel production feasible from an economic point of view, several studies have investigated the main associated bottlenecks of the whole production process through approaches such as the "cradle to grave" approach or the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis, being the main constrains the feedstock collection and transport. Whilst several feedstocks are interesting because of their high sugar content, very few of them are available all year around and moreover do not require high transportation' costs. This work aims to investigate if the "zero miles" concept could bring advantages to biofuel production by decreasing all the associated transport costs on a locally established production platform. In particular, a specific case study applied to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) campus is used as example to investigate the advantages and feasibility of using the spent coffee grounds generated at the main cafeteria for the production of bioethanol on site, which can be subsequently used to (partially) cover the campus' energy demands.