Repurposing Coffee Pulping Waste Water – CoffeeTalk

Coffee exports in India have grown by 45% YoY in 2024, reaching $1.19 billion. However, the industry faces environmental challenges such as water usage, by-product management, and greenhouse gas emissions. The water footprint during coffee production is approximately 140 litres for a single cup of branded coffee and 20,000 litres for a kg of coffee. By-products include over 10 million tonnes of agricultural coffee residue, wasted water, and crop residues.

The coffee pulp generated from processing is one of the major under-utilised by-products at the farm level, making it expensive to reuse. Effective treatment of coffee pulping wastewater can help reduce water usage and contribute to the income of coffee growers. However, current technologies cannot recover water and other resources from effluents, which can infiltrate soil, change soil composition, reduce net yield, emit greenhouse gases, and cause eutrophication.

To address this ecological issue, there is an urgent need to cater to water usage and waste disposal in coffee production, which can contribute to promoting a circular economy. Disruptive and advanced innovation in this domain can reduce water requirements and costs, treat water at large capacity, and achieve zero liquid discharge in compliance with government regulations.

Fine Particle Shortwave Dissociation principles can be used to recover water from toughest effluents. Compounds dissolved in the effluent dissociate their elemental states, allowing water with suspended particles to be removed as sludge. Clean water can then be recovered from the effluent using the facilitated Osmotic Diffusion (RFOD) technique, similar to nutrient absorption in human bodies.

By implementing these principles, water purification can be enhanced in an eco-friendly way, leading to a sustainable world, reducing footprint, and promoting resource replenishment for a circular economy. Recovering the utility of coffee pulp and water while reducing its environmental impact can offer agricultural and economic benefits to coffee growers and lovers.

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