Researchers at the AMU Centre of Advanced Technology are giving coffee grounds a second life. They are conducting a project in which they may find use as fillers for synthetic materials. Coffee grounds can be a precious raw material used in the manufacture of numerous daily products, replacing or reducing the use of plastics made from crude oil.
- If, in addition, we make use of polylactide - a polymer produced from plant production - to produce these goods, we obtain low-carbon and friendly materials, explains Prof Robert Przekop of the Centre of Advanced Technology.
It is precisely what researchers from the Centre for Advanced Technologies at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, who, under the leadership of Dr Bogna Sztorch, are investigating as part of the international project M-ERA NET - PolyBioMat - Polylactide-based multifunctional materials. The project aims to develop friendly composite materials capable of replacing petroleum-based plastics and entirely based on plant-based raw materials.
The project is creating materials into which coffee grounds can receive a chance to be reused.
"Such activities are called a Closed Circuit Economy," comments Prof Robert Przekop, adding, "We want to manage the material cycle in such a way that the materials are used for as long as possible. Out of concern for the environment and our planet, we are undertaking measures to limit the negative impact of industrialisation and a consumer lifestyle. Making the things we use daily useful even after they have served their purpose so that they do not turn into waste, which burdens the environment. The manufacture of all the materials on which our civilisation is built involves the consumption of energy and, therefore, the emission of carbon dioxide. By giving material waste a new life, we reduce emissions", comments Prof Przekop.
The team of scientists is assisted in their research by willing employees of the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, who have supplied them with white containers and collected the grounds from the cups of coffee they have drunk within their faculties. The containers are collected at least once a week.
In this way, the employees are, not only, involved in the research being carried out but also implement ecological solutions in the workplace.