1

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Background of the Study

Publish online on February 14, 2018, according to Guendouz Mohamed and

Boukhelkhal Djamila of LME Laboratory, University of Medea, Algeria. An increase in

coffee beverages consumption has been observed all over the world, and its consumption

increases the waste coffee grounds which will become an environmental problem.

Recycling of this waste to produce new materials like sand concrete appears as one of the

best solutions for reduces the problem of pollution. This work aims to study the porosity,

density, workability and mechanical strength of coffee grounds as an additives in

concrete hollow block.

For this concrete hollow block mixes with spent coffee grounds waste at different

percentage in order to study the influence of this wastes on physical (Workability, bulk

density and porosity) and mechanical properties of concrete hollow block. The results

showed that the use of spent coffee grounds waste as partial replacement of natural sand

contributes to reduce workability, bulk density and mechanical strength of sand concrete

mixes with an increase on its porosity.

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The fraction of organic waste in household wastes is large and increases with

time. In each country, the waste composition is different, since it is affected by

socioeconomic characteristics, consumption patterns, and waste management programs,

but generally, the level of organic in waste components is high. Among these wastes is a

coffee waste. The valorization of this type of waste can contribute to the reduction of

pollution, and manufacture new building materials. Several works have already been

done on the use of coffee waste as an aggregate in the preparation of cement mortar,

concrete and Eco-fired clay bricks. The authors in this works explored the use of light

aggregate based on coffee waste, as a composite material reducing the workability,

density, the cost, the brittleness, the thermal insulation properties and fire of building

materials such as concrete, mortars or bricks. The results found by various authors

showed that the properties of concrete containing spent coffee grounds aggregates as

lightweight aggregate are similar or even better than those of concrete containing some

other commonly used natural lightweight aggregates. The lack of adhesion between the

grain of spent coffee grounds and cement paste and the inhibition of cement hydration

due to the cellular nature of spent coffee ground are the reasons indicated in several

studies for the poor mechanical properties of concrete containing spent coffee ground.

This work focuses on the possibility of recycling waste coffee grounds without any prior

treatment (SCG) as a partial replacement of natural aggregate in dune sand, to minimize

the cost of the final material. The influence of the proportion of waste used (spent coffee

ground) on the properties of the new material has been studied and analyzed.
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Statement of the Problem

Upon doing this study, the proponents discovered that problem might encountered

in the future of this study. This may cause our study to fail or succeed.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

POROSITY

1. Can coffee grounds help to void the space in concrete hollow block?

BULK DENSITY

2. In additive of coffee grounds in concrete hollow block can reduce the density than

the natural sand?

WORKABILITY

3. Can coffee grounds decrease the slump of concrete hollow block?

MECHANICAL PROPERTY

4. Is coffee grounds can sustain the compression strength of the concrete hollow

block in a long time of period?

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Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is to discover an innovative way on how to

enhance the flexural strength of the concrete hollow block and to help the environment to

reuse the waste coffee grounds as an additive in concrete hollow block.

Community and Environment. The innovation of waste coming from the sector of coffee

business can help the sector of construction industry to reduce the cost of materials and

solve some environmental problem.

Engineering Sciences and Research. This research aims to produce a product that will

enlighten some researchers to make an innovation solution on how to increase the

mechanical strength using the waste coffee grounds in the construction materials that can

be sustain in a long period of time.

Industry. The idea of this research aims to reuse the waste that can gives a positive

approach to reduce the cost of materials.

Objective of the Study

This work aims to study the possibility of recycling waste coffee grounds as an

additive in concrete hollow block and the viability of mixing increasing amount of coffee

grounds as a solid waste.

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Specifically, this study aims:

a. Physical

 Workability

 Bulk density

 Porosity

b. Mechanical

 Compressive

Rationale of the Study

Coffee ground is abundant in the world. When we use coffee grounds as an

additives in concrete hollow block, we will identify how its strength use in concrete

works. We will also know of what is the difference of concrete hollow block with or

without coffee grounds. To provide new ideas in construction.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

The study will only determine the effectiveness of the coffee grounds on the

physical property and mechanical property of concrete hollow block. The study will only
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limit to the production of concrete hollow block with coffee grounds and to determine its

physical properties.

Definition of Terms

Socioeconomic – relating to or concerned with the interaction of social and economic

factors.

Porosity – is the quality of being porous, or full of tiny holes.

Bulk Density – also called apparent density or volumetric density, is a property of

powders, granules, and others “divided” solids, especially used in reference to mineral

components, chemical substances, ingredients, foodstuff, or any other masses of

corpuscular or particulate matter.

Diffusivity – a measure of capability of a substance or energy to be diffuse or to allow to

something to pass by diffusion.

Adhesion – the action of process of adhering to a surface or injury.

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CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LETIRATURE

This chapter deals with the evaluation of the urged study’s current writing and

associated research. They’re disclosed and condensed, bearing in mind the final word

objective of providing the reader with a foundation of the matter. It conjointly provides a

basis for important information that may guide and enhance the continuation of this

research.

Coffee Grounds

a) Foreign

Coffee ground (CG) contains large amounts of organic compounds (i.e. fatty

acids, amino acids, polyphenols, minerals and polysaccharides) that justify its

valorization. Earlier innovation explored the extraction of specific components such as

oil, flavor, terpenes, and alcohols as value-added products. However, by-products of

coffee fruit and bean processing can also be considered as potential functional ingredients

for the food industry. There is an urgent need for practical and innovative ideas to use

this low cost coffee grounds and exploit its full potential increasing the overall

sustainability of the coffee agro-industry.

Coffee grounds used as mulches or amendments have mostly positive effects on

soils (Yamane et al. 2014). Coffee grounds will moderate soil temperature and increase
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soil water (Ballesteros et al. 2014) like any other good mulch material. Coffee grounds

bind pesticide residues (Bouchenafa-Saïb et al. 2014; Fenoll et al. 2014) and toxic heavy

metals such as cadmium (Azouaou et al. 2010; Kim et al. 2014), preventing their

movement into the surrounding environment. They also increase the availability of

essential plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, and zinc (Kitou and Okuno

1999; Liu and Price 2011; Morikawa and Saigusa 2011, 2008), especially in more

alkaline soils.

b) Local

Coffee is one of the most important agricultural commodities in the world. Currently,

about one million tons of coffee is produced yearly in more than 50 countries (ICO,

2011). The consumption of coffee has increased worldwide and coffee residues such as

coffee pulp, husk and grounds are generated in more than two million tons per year

(Pandey et al., 2000). In Japan, the consumption of ready-to-drink coffee in bottles, packs

and cans has increased remarkably in recent years (Morikawa and Saigusa, 2011). The

amount of coffee grounds, the residue obtained during the preparation of ready-to-drink

coffee, also tends to increase year by year. Therefore low-cost and effective strategies for

recycling coffee grounds have become important.

Some attempts have already been made to use coffee grounds. Silva et al. (1998)

reported that coffee grounds are used as a fuel in the boilers of the Brazilian soluble

coffee industry. Morikawa and Saigusa (2011) reported that top-dressing application of

coffee grounds increased in Fe and Zn levels of rice grains because the residue acted as

Fe and Zn chelating agents in soils. In addition, coffee grounds contain more N and K
 9

than common organic materials such as cow manure and chicken manure (Pandey et al.,

2000; Kasongo et al., 2011). These results suggest that coffee grounds have the potential

to use for energy and agriculture. However, coffee grounds contain chlorogenic acid that

inhibits plant growth (Pandey et al., 2000). Kitou and Yoshida (1997) examined the

growth of 12 crop species in pots filled with soil containing coffee grounds. As a result,

high concentrations of coffee grounds inhibited plant growth.

The inhibitory activities may disappear by composting coffee grounds. However,

Wakasawa et al. (1998a) reported that plant growth was inhibited even though coffee

grounds were composted for six months. In the case of mixture of coffee grounds and

other organic materials such as bark (Wakasawa et al., 1998b), the composting period

was shortened and the inhibitory effects disappeared within 3 months. These results

suggest that mixed application of coffee grounds and organic materials into soil is

effective to alleviate the inhibitory activities of coffee grounds. However, the inhibitory

effects on plant growth were examined using extraction liquids from the compost in vitro

(Wakasawa et al., 1998a). There is no long term field study on the availability of the

mixed application of organic materials and raw coffee grounds into fields. Another

inhibitory effect of coffee grounds is the reduction of mineral N content of soil

(Wakasawa et al., 1998a). Thus, the authors suggested the necessity of 15 to 20 g m–2 of

nitrogen fertilization into soil when 2.5 kg m–2 of coffee grounds was applied. However,

N addition from animal manures or inorganic fertilizers results in a high potential for

NO3-N leaching from fields (Dinnes et al., 2002). Gómez-López and del Amor (2013)

demonstrated that the use of horse manure for supplying N showed better results in

minimizing NO3– leakage and enhancing plant growth and yield of pepper compared
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with poultry or sheep manures. Therefore, we hypothesized that the mixed application of

coffee grounds and horse manure in fields would be effective to diminish the inhibitory

effects of coffee grounds and minimize NO3– pollution. Even though the possibility of

weed control by the application of coffee grounds has been demonstrated (e.g., Kitou and

Yoshida, 1997), the impact and stability of weed control in fields have not been

demonstrated before.

Materials

The sand used in this work is a dune sand (DS) extracted from south of Algeria,

with a maximum grain diameter of approximately 2 mm; and the proportion of grains

smaller than 0.08 mm is below 5%. The particle size distributions of this sand are shown

in Figure 1 and its physical characteristics are presented in Table 1.The X-ray Diffraction

analysis of dune sands demonstrates their siliceous nature “Figure 2” and the SEM

investigation reveals the rounded shape of its grains “Figure 3”.

Fig. 1. Particle size distribution of sand and coffee waste used

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Table 1. Physical properties of used sand.

Fig. 2. X-ray diffractogram analysis of dune sand used.

Fig. 3. Scanning electron micrographs of used sand.

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Portland cement CEM II/A 42.5 from MASCARA Factory in Algeria with a density of

3100 kg/m3 was used throughout this study. The chemical analysis of this cement is presented in

Table 2.

Table 2. The chemical composition of cement used.

The use of fillers in sand concrete composition is essential [8]. Their use is intended to

complete the grading curve of sand in its finest part in order to obtain more compact concrete,

reduce the cement content and therefore the cost of concrete [9]. In this work the fillers used are

the limestone powder. Their specific density is 2.857 kg/m3, and specific surface area 310 m2/kg.

The Spent coffee grounds (SCG) used in this work were obtained by recycling a local coffee shop

(Arabica type), dried, and powdered after received and oven-dried at a temperature of 105 ° C±2.

Figure 4 shows the SCG used in this work. It’s a 4 mm maximum size “Figure 1”. The chemical

analysis of this SCG is presented in Table 3 and their physical and thermal properties are

presented in Table 4.

Table 3. Chemical analysispP of coffee waste used.

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Table 4. Physical and thermal properties of coffee wastes used.

Fig. 4. General aspect of used coffee waste.

In this work a polycarboxylate based plasticiser ‘MEDAFLUID 104’, with a liquid form;

a chestnut color; a PH equal to 6, a density of 1.04 ± 0,01 and a content of chlore < 1g/L. The

mixing water used for the different mixes is the distribution drinking water.

Mix Design

In this work, the optimal compositions of the concrete hollow block studied, without

SCG, is based on the experimental method proposed from Sablocrete project. The sand is

substituted by volume with the SCG at dosages of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%. Two types of SC

mixtures were made the CSC: Control sand concrete (Without spent coffee grounds) and CSCG:

Sand concrete with spent coffee grounds. All specimens were produced in laboratory

environment with 20°C and 50% RH. After 24 h, they were removed from the molds and placed
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in water at 20°C and 100% relative humidity until the day of testing. This procedure was

respected for all compositions and all tests.

Test Procedures

The fresh dune sand concrete was characterized by it corresponding slump, determined

with means of the Abrams cone test (NF P 18-451), and fresh density (EN 12350-6). For

hardened sand concrete mixes, flexural strength was determined by using three points test for

each composition on three 4×4×16 cm prismatic samples.

The half-samples resulting from this test were then submitted to compression test on a

4×4 cm test section (EN 196-1). Sample size is significant in comparison with the size of

aggregates.

In this study the porosity of dune sand concrete is measured on the base of total immersion test in

water; with sample preparation under vacuum. The thermal properties (conductivity and

diffusivity) were measured using the CT-meter device (Fig. 5) on three 40×80×160 mm samples

according to NF EN ISO 8894-1.

Fig. 5. Measurement of thermal properties

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Concrete Hollow Blocks (CHB):

Concrete Hollow Blocks (CHB), are one of the most extensively used walling

materials in the Philippines. Some of the reasons for this is their relative low cost when

compared to other materials and speed of installation by semi-skilled laborers. CHB walls

are very weak against lateral loads (pushing or pulling forces from typhoon or

earthquake). Adding steel reinforcing bars vertically and horizontally inside the CHBs

can increase their resistance to lateral loads.

RELATED STUDIES

There was a study entitled "Incorporation of coffee grounds into clay brick

production" has been conducted to assess the viability of mixing increasing amounts of

coffee ground as a solid waste material (1-5 wt-%) with raw clay. Clay was supplied by

the local plant of the company ‘Arcillas Bailen S.L.’, in Bailen, Jaen, Spain. The initial

preparation consists of shredding clay in a hammer mill in order to obtain particles with a

suitable size to be sifted through a 150 mm sieve.

In order to determine the effect on the clay matrix caused by the pore formation of

organic waste material, different amounts of coffee grounds (1–5 wt-%) with a humidity

level of 44-8% in clay were added. After weighing the suitable amounts of clay and

coffee grounds, raw material and lightening additive were mixed in a mortar to obtain

good homogenization. In order to obtain comparative results, a series of 10samples of 40

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g, each containing 0–5 wt-% of coffee grounds, were prepared for the tests. The

necessary amount of water (7–10 wt-% of moisture) was added to obtain adequate

plasticity and absence of defects, mainly cracks, during the semidry compression molding

stage. At this stage, uniaxial pressures of 54-5 MPa were applied. Conformed bricks with

30610 mm cross-sections and a length of 60 mm were obtained. After molding, the bricks

were dried for 48 h at 110uCtoreduce the moisture content, so that no cracks would

appear on samples at a later stage.

Eventually, the dried bricks were fired in a laboratory type electrically heated

furnace at a rate of 10uCmin21up to 950uC for 24 h. This temperature is usually used in

the fabrication of clayey bricks. The bricks were then cooled to room temperature by

natural convection inside the furnace after being turned off. The con-formed bricks will

be designated as A for the brick without residue and AC-x for mixtures, where x denotes

the coffee ground weight percentage in the ma-trix clay (C).

According to Arulrajah and his team they conducted a study entitled “Café to

construction site: coffee grounds can be used to build roads”, used coffee grounds from

cafes in Melbourne, Australia, mixed them up with various ratios of slag, compressed

their concoctions into blocks and tested them in a special pressurized cylinder to find

their buckling point.

For subgrades – the foundation material underneath road pavement layers – 70%

coffee grounds and 30% slag, mixed with a solution of 70% sodium silicate and 30%

sodium hydroxide, produced the strongest product, comparable to common cement, with

relatively low alkaline levels and almost no carbon emissions.

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Apart from bearing physical resemblance to sand, Coffee Ground (CG) was

chosen as a research material partly due to its popularity across the globe. Coffee is one

of the most popular beverages in the world. It comes second as the world’s most

important commodity, after fossil fuel (Marescotti and Belletti, 2016). Statistics gathered

from the International Coffee Organization (ICO) in early 2017 shows that the world

consumed 9 million tons of coffee from year 2015 to 2016. Brazil was the world’s largest

coffee exporter and was responsible for distributing 3 million tons of coffee beans,

followed by Vietnam at 1.5 million tons of export. Records from the ICO also show that

Brazilians ranked at the top of the annual coffee consumption statistics for 2015-2016,

and is followed in descending order by Indonesia, Ethiopia, and the Philippines. Australia

is considered as a coffee-importing country and in 2016 Australians were ranked the 8th

heaviest coffee consumers in the world, preceded mainly by the European Union, USA,

and Japan. A detailed statistical analysis has shown that in 2012, global consumption of

coffee grew steadily by 1.9% annually for 50 years (ICO, 2014). Demands in coffee

consumption is still projected to increase steadily, particularly in developing nations (Butt

and Sultan, 2011). Moreover, the public opinion on coffee is increasingly positive, with

current scientific publications widely reporting the benefits of coffee consumption (ICO,

2014). The rebranding of coffee, particularly in importing nations, as an exotic drink

associated with high social positioning, coupled with extravagant brewing and drinking

methods, has further propagated the interest of the younger generations in pursuing this

beverage (Ponte, 2002).

CG is a waste material derived from the grinding and brewing of coffee from

coffee beans. It is the solid granular residue of the ground beans which is disposed-off
 18

after the coffee-brewing process. Tsai et al. (2012) speculated that coffee producing

countries generate residual coffee wastes amounting to more than 50% of the fruit mass.

A survey done in 2015 projected that the world produced 8.6 million tons of CG

(Phimsen et al., 2016), and this figure likely increased with annual growth in coffee

demand. CG is increasingly becoming a significant waste stream hence gaining focus as a

target for waste management. Nestle, the world’s biggest food company which owns the

Nescafe brand of coffee, pledged to commit CG from more than 20 of their European

coffee processing plants into biofuel development and implementation by 2020 (Campos-

Vega et al., 2015).

CG is a waste material widely known as a nutrient rich organic compound. CG

contains high levels of nitrogen hence is often used as an agricultural fertilizer (Gomes et

al., 2013). However, the utilization is strictly limited to domestic gardens and farms as a

compost, because of the slow release of nutrients (Ciesielczuk et al., 2017; Hardgrove

and Livesley, 2016). Research found that fresh CG is detrimental to plant growth due to

reduced mineral availability and growth disruption due to bioactive residues such as

caffeine. Even when introduced at small volumes as low as 2.5%, fresh CG was found to

inhibit the growth of broccoli, sunflower, viola, leek, and radish (Hardgrove and

Livesley, 2016). Also, while lettuce was observed to develop more vibrant colorations

when their soil medium was added with 20-30% of CG, crop yield was reported to

decrease (Cruz et al., 2015). About 15% of CG compost was found to optimally provide

macronutrients to supplement plant growth (Cruz et al., 2014). Another study on basil

and tomato done by Ronga et al. (2016) more positively reports that potted soil

supplemented with CG compost by up to 40% resulted in enhanced yields. All literatures

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discussed the potential of reutilizing CG compost as an economical fertilizer, but no

documentation has been found to support any large-scale commercialization of using CG

as an agricultural fertilizers.

An alternative and relatively straight forward method to recycle CG is by utilizing

the organic waste as a biofuel. CG can be disposed of in anaerobic digestion tanks with

other organic waste to produce methane (Kim et al., 2017). On the other hand, CG can

also be refined to produce biodiesel. Kondamudi et al. (2008) successfully extracted

highly efficient biodiesel equal to 15% of CG by weight, and estimated that 340 million

gallons of biodiesel could be added to the global fuel supply if CG is fully utilized as a

biofuel. Due to CG’s high antioxidant content, the biodiesel extracted from CG was

deemed more stable compared to those obtained from other sources (Yanagimoto et al.,

2004). While many studies involved coffee oil extraction and esterification from CG to

fuel, an innovative method was proposed to administer sulphuric acid into dried CG. The

inclusion of an acid catalyst bypasses the tedious extraction process and was proposed by

Liu et al. (2017) to further increase the efficiency of recycling CG into a biofuel.

The interesting biological configuration in CG enables this organic waste to be altered by

various chemical activators to be reused in different fields. CG is also known to exhibit

chemical properties suitable for a cationic dye removal agent (Franca et al., 2009).

Studies done on the carbonization of CG hints to potential reuse as a landfill leachate

absorbent (Castro et al., 2011; Ching et al., 2011). CG was impregnated with different

activating agents, including sulphuric acid and sodium carbonate, and subsequently

carbonized. An activated carbon with high pore surface was synthesized and found to

effectively absorb total iron and orthophosphate from landfill leachates. Composted CG
 20

mixed with soil was found to stall the leaching of methabenzthiazuron (Fenoll et al.,

2014), a common herbicide used in agricultural applications, thus adding credibility to

the potential of recycling CG as a leachate absorbent. On the other hand, CG was found

to contain a substantial amount of antioxidant phenolic. These compounds play a positive

role in health improvement and is a major component in pharmaceutical and nutritional

food products. Since CG contain antioxidants, amino acids, low glycemic sugars, and is

composed of insoluble fibers which are resistant to thermal food processing and

digestion, the waste was studied as a recycled food ingredient as a supplement for dietary

fibre and low-calorie sweetener (Martinez-Saez et al., 2017). Innovative biscuits with

high nutritional values and no adverse side effects to human health were formulated as a

result.

SYNTHESIS

This experimental work focuses on the effect of recycling coffee wastes on

physical, mechanical and thermal properties of dune sand concrete. The ecological

benefit of effectively utilizing this waste material is another prime motivation for this

work. From the obtained results of this study.

The use of spent coffee grounds (SCG) as partial replacement of sand contributes

to decrease the density of dune sand concrete as well as its workability of about 77%. 2-

The porosity of dune sand concrete increase with incorporation of coffee wastes. 3-The

mechanical properties at age of 28 days of dune sand concrete decrease when the
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percentage of coffee waste increases. A decrease of 44% and 68% in compressive and

flexural strength respectively when 20% of SCG-aggregates are added. But this result

was acceptable for lightweight concrete. 4-Spent coffee grounds replacement with natural

sand in mixture caused a reduction in the values of thermal conductivity of the sand

concrete (48%). The sand concretes containing 15% and 20% of SCG are regarded as

insulating materials (λ<1 W/m°C).

Finally, this work insures that the recycling of coffee wastes in dune sand

concrete gives a positive approach to conserve the environment and non-renewable

natural material resources.

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THEORITICAL/CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Materials
Coffee Grounds waste, Sand, Water and Portland cement

Input Methods
Preparation of sand, portland cement, water and coffee grounds. Mixing
together all the materials. Putting the mixture into the molder.

Data Analysis

Throughput Laboratory testing of the following:

Porosity, Bulk Density, Workability & Mechanical Strength

Coffee Grounds as an additives in Concrete Hollow Block

Output
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CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

In this chapter discuss the research design, sources of data, research instrument/s,

respondents (participant or subject) and sampling technique, procedure of the study and

ethical consideration.

Research Design

The researcher conducted to evaluate the porosity, bulk density, workability and

mechanical strength of concrete hollow block with mix of coffee grounds. The materials

involved in the research are coffee grounds, portland cement, sand and water. The

porosity, bulk density, workability and mechanical strength are measured.

Sample
Sand (Kg) Cement (kg) Water (m^3) Coffee Grounds %
Control 35.50 13.60 0.026 0%
Treatment 1 71.00 27.01 0.052 5%
Treatment 2 106.51 40.81 0.078 10%
Treatment 3 142.00 54.41 0.104 15%

Table 1. Concrete hollow block mixture proportion (1m3 ) of coffee grounds.

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Research Local

The study will be conducted in Jose Maria College located at Philippines – Japan

Friendship Highway, Catitipan Davao City.

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Materials for the experiment

1. Portland cement – the primary mixture of concrete.

2. Sand – to add more volume of the concrete.

3. Water – it has important effect on the strength and

durability of hardened concrete.

4. Coffee Grounds – the main material that used in the

study.
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Tools and machines

Basic tools that will use in making of concrete hollow block with mix of coffee grounds.

1. Shovel – used for mixing concrete and coffee grounds.

2. Concrete Hollow Block Molder – used to form the

concrete hollow block.

3. Weighing Scale – used for getting the mass for the

cement, sand, gravel, coffee grounds.

4. Sieve – used for separation of coarse fine

aggregates.
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Procedure

Mixture For CHBs: Mix Proportion 1:7, as per structural

engineer’s specification.

Water Clean water should be used. Shall not exceed 28 liters per

40kg per bag of cement, slump test (as per ASTM C-143)

shall not exceed 10cm, unless specified by a structural

engineer.

Mixing Time If batch mixer is used, use accurate timing and measuring

devices to operate as per manufacturer’s instructions.

Revolutions should be between 14 and 20 per minutes.

Curing After being remove from the mould, the CHBs should be

covered with a plastic sheet or tarpaulin and kept damp

and shaded for at least 7 days in order to effectively cure.

This can be achieved by continually spraying them with

the water or keeping them under the water in tanks. A

good curing process leads to less cracking and a stronger,

harder, denser and more durable concrete.