A London-based start up company is pioneering the use of old coffee as a green energy to heat buildings.

Bio-bean Ltd makes biomass pellets from waste coffee grounds, providing a clean, cheap and locally produced alternative to fossil fuels.

The company collects old coffee grounds from waste management businesses, transport companies and coffee processing factories.

It takes the waste to its recycling factory where the grounds are turned into biomass pellets to be sold to heat buildings, office blocks and supermarkets through biomass boilers.

The brainchild of CEO Arthur Kay, a former Architecture student at The Bartlett, University College London (UCL).

Kay had the idea for bio-bean while designing a coffee roasting plant and coffee shop. Investigating how a building’s waste could be used to power the building he integrated three technologies, which within the business framework became an environmentally and commercially pioneering enterprise.

Kay said: “As cities expand we are being faced with the chance to reconceptualise the way in which food, technology and waste shape our lives and our built environment.

“Where others see waste, bio-bean sees resources in the wrong place, demonstrating that urban structures are open to sustainable redesign.”

Bio-bean is also working on producing biodiesel from coffee to power transport systems.

Bio-bean has won multiple awards, including the 2014 Green Challenge, Shell Springboard Award, Innovate UK R&D Grants and the prestigious Guardian Sustainable Business Leader of the Year 2015.