Waste from the 1.3 million cups of coffee drunk each day in Australia could be turned into concrete used in homes, driveways or office buildings as a result of a new project from RMIT University.
As part of the venture, a keen coffee-loving engineering lecturer and his students have looked to the construction industry for a novel solution to reduce the amount of coffee grinds going to landfill – using them in concrete.
Most concrete mixes contain up to 80 per cent sand – the third most used resource on the planet. But even this seemingly endless resource cannot keep up with current demand, and extracting it from places with fragile ecosystems can have a huge environmental impact.
The group found they could replace up to 10 per cent of sand in a concrete mix with coffee grounds and have produced sample ‘coffee bricks’, which will be on display at RMIT’s EnGenius event this Wednesday.
The event will see more than 1,000 final year engineering students from 11 disciplines showcase their projects and products to industry and the public.
Bachelor of Engineering (Civil and Infrastructure) (Honours) students Senura Kohombange and Anthony Abiad worked with Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering Dr Srikanth Venkatesan to test and develop the ‘coffee bricks’.
“It seems fitting then that we’re working on this project in Melbourne, a city known for its great coffee culture,” Kohombange said.
“We are very excited to present the project, share the idea with others and showcase how some innovative thinking can turn a waste product into an everyday construction material.”
There were an estimated 2,600 cafes in the City of Melbourne alone in 2017, producing approximately 156,000kg of coffee-ground waste every month.
Venkatesan said as a regular cappuccino drinker he was inspired to find a solution to the waste he was making each day.
“The biggest challenge is ensuring the addition of spent coffee grinds does not lead to a reduction in strength of concrete and this is the focus of further testing and development to make this product viable for use in real-world applications,” he detailed.
Two other innovative projects to be showcased at EnGenius include a three-digit prosthetic hand which mimics the human tendons, muscle, and bone structure – by Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) student Sabrina Meikle – and a temporary shelter design for the thousands of families displaced from their homes each year due to natural disasters – by Bachelor of Engineering (Civil and Infrastructure) (Honours) Theo Mimoun and four other students.
Executive Dean School of Engineering, Distinguished Professor, Adrian Mouritz, said RMIT was proud to produce the next generation of engineers who were designing solutions to real-world problems.
“EnGenius takes engineering out of the classroom and brings it to life,” he said.
“Many of these projects focus on making our world a better place, be it more inclusive or more sustainable.”