Taiwan university turns coffee grounds into building materials

台灣大學將咖啡渣製成建築材料

Coffee grounds offer low-cost, green alternative for noise reduction


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Materials Science and Engineering Department Professor Chen Jem-kun (陳建光) led his team to develop building materials made from coffee grounds.

Chen said that coffee grounds have a porous structure, allowing sound waves to reflect and scatter within the pores, resulting in effective noise reduction. He added that this new material is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than traditional soundproofing materials.

Coffee grounds also offer deodorizing, moisture-absorbing and insect-repellent properties, making them promising for the green building materials industry, per CNA.

Most coffee ground-based building materials use adhesives for bonding, which can block the material’s natural pores, Chen said. He added that this greatly reduces their soundproofing effectiveness and makes them less biodegradable.

Chen said that his team completed the project after two years of research, which involved material modification and hot-pressing techniques. The material, which does not use industrial adhesives, is ready for mass production.

Chen highlighted the new material is set to be used in sound-sensitive settings such as homes, offices, recording studios, and cinemas. It will also be applied in furniture manufacturing.

Chen added that coffee is the world's second most traded commodity after oil, generating 7.63 million tonnes of coffee grounds annually. Most of this waste is used for composting, which can have negative impacts on the environment.

In September, Joseph Kuo (郭俞麟), a professor at the university’s Mechanical Engineering Department, created skincare ingredients using coffee grounds. He extracted organic compounds from the coffee waste that help moisturize the skin and inhibit melanin production.

During the same month, the university partnered with Mi Barbecue Beer Bar and Kainan University to turn coffee grounds into charcoal. The ash produced from burning this coffee charcoal can be converted into biofertilizer or other renewable materials, promoting resource recycling.