Farmers in Central America have generated clean energy from coffee wastewater, as part of Energy from Coffee Wastewater project undertaken by UTZ Certified.
UTZ Certified's project is aimed at generating energy, protecting water resources and mitigating the amount of greenhouse-gas emissions by treating discharges from coffee mills into the atmosphere.
As part of the project, coffee wastewater treatment and solid-waste treatment systems were installed in eight coffee farms in Nicaragua, 10 in Honduras and one in Guatemala.
The process generated biogas that is being used to power households and coffee mills.
According to UTZ, the project helped in preventing deforestation of native trees as the local families began using biogas for cooking.
All the water used in coffee processing was treated and the usage of water in the process reduced by half.
UTZ Certified executive director Han De Groot said: "Coffee production is only environmentally sustainable when water is used efficiently and polluted water from the wet-mill process is treated. Local ecosystems do not have the capacity to clean the large amounts of contaminated fluids.
"Rural communities and coffee production depend intrinsically on a ready supply of fresh water. So if we want to talk about coffee produced in a sustainable manner then wastewater must be treated when released into the environment."
UTZ Certified is expanding the project to Peru and Brazil. It is soliciting industry support and funds to replicate the initiative in Africa and Asia.
The organization works towards sustainable farming and betterment of farmers.
