Coffee Concrete Makes Its Debut In A Major Infrastructure Project – CoffeeTalk

Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) and project contractor BildGroup have used concrete mixed with biochar made from spent coffee grounds as a replacement for river sand in the Pakenham Roads Upgrade. Organic waste, including spent coffee grounds, contributes 3% of greenhouse gas emissions to landfills. To avoid decomposition and weakening the building material, the used coffee is converted into biochar before being added to the concrete mix. Australia generates 75 million kilograms of ground coffee waste annually, but it could replace up to 655 million kilograms of sand in concrete due to its denser nature.

For this project, Earth Systems converted 5 tonnes of spent coffee grounds, about 140,000 coffees worth of grounds, into 2 tonnes of useable biochar. The 30 meters cubed footpath along McGregor Road in Pakenham has been laid into the biochar. The use of coffee biochar is one of several circular economy initiatives delivered for the Pakenham Roads Upgrade, including reusing in-fill soil and material for the Princes Freeway embankments and using foam bitumen and rubber tyre road barriers.

MRPV Program Director Brendan Pauwels said coffee concrete had the potential to cut costs and remove vast amounts of waste material from landfill. RMIT Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Rajeev Roychand, lead inventor of the coffee concrete, was excited to partner with BildGroup and MRPV for the translation of the RMIT team’s research into Victorian government’s Big Build projects.

BildGroup CEO Stephen Hill expressed his satisfaction with the company leading the way in bringing coffee concrete to a major infrastructure project for the Australian construction industry. The team is currently engaging with a commercialisation partner and companies in the construction and agriculture sectors that would potentially benefit from using biochar products.

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