Gizmorama - September 16, 2013

Good Morning,

Hey, don't throw out our used coffee grounds just yet! U.S. scientists claim that coffee grounds could become the biofuels of the future. I'll drink to that!

Learn about this and other interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Millions of tons of waste coffee grounds could be source of biofuels --*
CINCINNATI - All those coffee grounds going into the world's trash bins could bring cheaper, cleaner fuel for cars, furnaces and other energy sources, U.S. scientists say. University of Cincinnati researchers report they've successfully converted waste coffee grounds into energy sources, including biodiesel and activated carbon. Grounds left over from brewing one of the world's most popular beverages are estimated at more than 1 million tons per year in the United Statesalone, with the majority of it getting dumped into landfills, the university said in a release Monday. In 2010, researchers began recovering waste coffee grounds from a Starbucks store on the university campus, removing oils they then converted into biodiesel fuel. The coffee grounds were subsequently dried and used to further purify the biodiesel. The oil content in the grounds was between 8.37 and 19.63 percent, the researchers said, and the biodiesel made from coffee oil meets international fuel standards with less emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and particular matter than petroleum diesel. Using coffee grounds to produce biodiesel would not only open landfill space, they said, but would create biodiesel from a natural product that's not also in high demand as a food source, such as corn and soybean crops used to manufacture biodiesel.


*-- Comet-hunting spacecraft still mute despite attempts to awaken it --*
PASADENA, Calif. - Ground controllers in California say they've been unable to communicate with NASA's long-lived Deep Impact spacecraft, last heard from in August. Deep Impact mission controllers at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said they would make ongoing attempts to uplink commands to re-establish communications with the spacecraft. The last communication with the comet-hunting spacecraft was on Aug. 8, when an anomaly generated by the spacecraft's software may have left its computers in a condition where they are continuously rebooting themselves, controllers said Tuesday. In that state, the computers would not be able to command the vehicle's thrusters to fire and hold the spacecraft's attitude, they said. That may be making attempts to re-establish communications more difficult because the orientation of the spacecraft's antennas is unknown, JPL said. Deep Impact, launched in January 2005, is NASA's most-traveled, deep-space comet hunter, successfully completing both its original mission and a subsequent extended mission. To date, Deep Impact has traveled about 4.7 billion miles in space.

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