The possibilities of using used coffee grounds are endless. From stronger concrete to a Styrofoam alternative, to next-generation batteries and filament for 3D printers, and even biofuel, used coffee grounds are an environmentally warm alternative to more classic materials in a variety of industries. Scientists have found another employ: cleaning polluted water.
Personally, I like to employ coffee grounds to pollute the water. I call it overflowing. However, it seems that coffee is as good at removing bad substances from water as it is at putting good substances in it. As reported Technology explorationScientists from the British University of Loughborough tried to determine whether used coffee grounds could be an effective tool for removing lead ions and other weighty metals from water.
For their research, published in the journal researchers started by converting ground coffee beans into biochar. In this process, ground coffee grounds are exposed to high temperatures, resulting in a highly porous material luxurious in carbon. Biochar has incredibly diverse uses and is one of the main ways people find fresh life for used coffee.
They found that coffee-based biochar effectively removed up to 98% of lead from water and was able to capture 4.9 mg of lead per gram of biochar. They also found that unprocessed used coffee grounds were able to remove weighty metals such as copper and zinc from water at low concentrations, while the coffee and rice husk mixture performed better at higher metal concentrations.
The fresh research builds on previous findings that used coffee grounds were used to remove herbicides and other harmful chemicals from water.
There are many potential benefits of drinking coffee this way. First, it is a fairly inexpensive technology. And this is an ecological double watch. Turning coffee into biochar removes some of the millions of tons that end up in landfills each year, while transforming it into something beneficial for the planet and its inhabitants.
Imagine another victory for the good guys. And now we have good employ of Double French Roast, which I believe is the same as biochar. (Just kidding, I love you, dim roast.)
