Ford to Make Parts Out of Coffee

Ford is planning to use a chaff composite, which is the husk of the bean that comes off during roasting, for interior car components and under the hood.

Dec. 4, 2019

Dec. 4, 2019—Coffee chaff, the husk of the bean that comes off during roasting, can be formed into pellets and other shapes like car parts, reported CNBC.

Ford is planning to use a chaff composite for interior car components and under the hood. These car parts will be 20 percent lighter, providing the cars with better fuel efficiency and provide the automaker 25 percent in energy savings during the molding of parts.

McDonald’s plans to divert a “significant portion” of its North American coffee chaff to Ford. In 2018, the fast-food giant served about 822 million cups of hot McCafe coffee in the United States alone.

Ford will first use the chaff to produce headlight housings.

Earlier in 2019, researchers were looking into things like orange peels and egg shells for certain auto parts.