Love your daily coffee?
What if I told you the grounds could be used for more than just your morning brew?
Scientists in Australia have discovered an amazing new use for used coffee grounds: they can make building concrete stronger and help the environment at the same time!
How Do Coffee Grounds Help?
A team from RMIT University in Australia led by Dr. Rajeev Roychand found that used coffee grounds can be turned into something called “biochar,” which can then be used in concrete. Amazingly, this makes the concrete 30% stronger!
The process used to make biochar doesn’t need much energy and happens without using any oxygen.
The scientists heat the coffee grounds to 350 degrees Celsius, and voila, biochar is made.
Why is this a big deal? Well, Australia alone produces 75 million kilograms (about 165 million pounds) of coffee ground waste each year, and most of it ends up in landfills.
When organic waste like coffee grounds rot in landfills, they produce harmful greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide, which are bad for our planet.
The team’s goal was to find a creative way to use all that coffee waste for something good. Not only does this new use for coffee grounds make concrete stronger, but it also means less waste goes to landfills.
Dr. Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch, another leader on the team, pointed out that using waste materials like this could be a big help for the environment.
Saving Sand
Professor Jie Li, another researcher involved, mentioned another benefit.
Normally, concrete is made using sand, which has to be taken from rivers and other natural places. This isn’t good for the environment.
But with this new method, some of that sand can be replaced with coffee biochar, reducing the need to take so much sand from nature.
The team is excited about the potential of their discovery. They’re planning to test it in real-world construction projects, and they’re talking with different industries to see how to best use this idea.
Several local councils that have problems with too much waste are already interested.
This research is still in the early stages, but the scientists believe that their findings could make a big difference.
Dr. Mohammad Saberian, another researcher, mentioned that they have experience in turning various kinds of organic waste into biochar for concrete. So this could be the start of something big, not just for coffee grounds but for other types of waste too!
So the next time you sip your morning coffee, just think: those used coffee grounds could someday be part of a building or a road, making them stronger and helping the planet at the same time.
Now that’s a double shot of goodness!
The study was published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
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