Swinburne University
A team of investigators has gathered the best of both worlds: it takes advantage of the so far useless coffee cutters to turn them into more effective building material than concrete.
“During the last century, the materials were evaluated only by the cost per square meter, but in the next chapter, we will evaluate them based on carbon, in transparency and circularity. And these metrics favor a new type of product, ”said Philip NG, founder of Green Brick.
Global ground coffee consumption – about 9 million tons per year – results in 18 million tons of wet coffee.
It was this carbon -centered assessment that a team of Australian researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology developed Strong and sustainable bricks made from used coffee beans.
The specific formulation is the key, explains the: allows Bake the bricks to only 200 °C (ie 80% less than about 1,000 ° C required in the traditional brick cooking).
“It is a process that consumes less energy, is faster and was designed to reduce to 80% of CO₂ emissions related to unit electricity”, explicou o Yat Wong.
In addition, the new sustainable bricks, built through lower cooking temperatures and circular raw materials, prove to be notably durablecoming to Duplicate the minimum resistance required by the Australian norm.
The discovery represents, above all, a potential advance in reducing the carbon footprint of the construction.
