Biofuels: Process Used To Roast Coffee Beans May Give Biomass A Power Boost

ScienceDaily (May 21, 2008) — A process used to roast coffee beans could give Britain's biomass a power boost, increasing the energy content of some of the UK’s leading energy crops by up to 20 per cent.

The study, carried out by engineers from the University of Leeds, examined the combustion behaviour of crops grown specifically for energy creation when put through a mild thermal process called ‘torrefaction’ – more usually associated with coffee production.

Torrefaction is increasingly seen as a desirable treatment for biomass because it creates a solid product which is easier to store, transport and mill than raw biomass.

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Nicaragua Apr 2007-08 Coffee Exports Up 43% To 174,647 Bags

Nicaraguan coffee exports in April, the seventh month of the new 2007-08 crop cycle, were up 43% to 174,647 (60-kilogram) bags, the official Nicaraguan Export Center, Cetrex, said Friday.

This compares to total Nicaraguan coffee shipments of 121,803 bags in April last year during the 2006-07 harvest year, Cetrex said in a report, a copy of which was obtained by Dow Jones Newswires.

Total Nicaraguan coffee exports from the beginning of the 2007-08 cycle - Oct. 1 through April - meanwhile, were up 35% to 827,142 bags, from shipments of 612,031 bags in the October-April period of the 2006-07 cycle.

Nicaraguan coffee exports in the last 2006-07 cycle ended down 15% on the year at 1,156,577 bags, compared to shipments of 1,362,487 bags in the 2005-06 record harvest year, Cetrex reported at the end of the cycle.

But Nicaraguan exports shipped during the 2006-07 crop cycle included about 200,000 bags of carryover stocks from the record 2005-06 harvest, industry officials said.

Nicaraguan coffee production in the 2006-07 harvest ended down 41% at 932,396 bags, from production of 1,590,490 bags in the 2005-06 cycle, Nicaragua's Ministry of Agriculture said in a 2007 report.

-By Maja Wallengren, Dow Jones Newswires; 5255-5001-5725; mwallengren@hotmail.com