A MAJOR student accommodation development proposed for Glasgow City Centre would use a biomass system that creates heating and hot water from used coffee grounds.

Manor Property Group/Qdos Glasgow Ltd want to build a complex containing 514 one-bed units for students plus 100 graduate apartments (90 with one bed and 10 with two beds) at 144 Port Dundas Road.

In documents submitted to Glasgow District Council they state: “At the heart of the proposed scheme…is the inclusion of a biomass district heating system which will be utilised to provide all the dwellings/units within the development with heat and domestic hot water, generated by twin, two-megawatt Humph boilers located within the building, and distributed via a heat ‘network’.

“The Humph boilers are fired by a patented pelleted fuel. The fuel is made of previously discarded coffee grounds from coffee shops or oat husks, a waste product from the oat production industry.

“This unique fuel is therefore an extremely ‘Green’ fuel commodity as previous biomass systems relied on wholesale felling of perfectly good trees.

“We are proud to announce that Port Dundas Road, Glasgow will be the first student facility to benefit from this type of biomass district heating system, with the possibility of linking it to users beyond the development.”

The statement continues: “Europe has led the way in this type of green energy use, employing these systems for decades. With this development at Port Dundas Road, Glasgow can proudly demonstrate that it is starting to redress this imbalance.”