Full of beans: scientists use processed coffee grounds to make stronger concrete

Makes you stronger!
In an idea that fittingly arose over a cup of coffee, researchers have devised a technique to recycle used coffee grounds to make stronger concrete.

Engineers at RMIT University say they have developed a way to make concrete nearly 30% stronger by incorporating processed coffee grounds into the material.

The researchers have converted waste coffee grounds into biochar, a lightweight residue similar to charcoal, and used that biochar to replace a portion of the sand required to make concrete.

The idea arose from a desire to minimise coffee waste within the workplace, said study co-lead Dr Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch, a vice-chancellor’s Indigenous postdoctoral research fellow at RMIT.