• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.45-53
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• 2016

At present, coffee consumption amount is annually on the rise in Korea, which results in about 0.27 million tons of coffee waste annually. They are mostly classified as food waste and deserted with moisture contained, being a serious environmental issue. Existing slope greening techniques, which are vegetation based soil-media hydroseeding measures, have problems such as lack of coherence, dryness or lack of organic matters. Therefore in order to assess usability of Spent Coffee Ground (SCG), medium-to long-term growth test was conducted under the indoor and outdoor conditions. According to the result of growth test, when SCG was mixed with existing base materials, moisturizing power increased and organic matter content was reinforced, promoting germination and growth in a medium term. Among others, under the condition when supply of water was discontinued, withering rate was lower than existing base materials and diverse phenomena resulting from lack of nutrition decreased. Therefore, SCG as a waste organic matter with abundant nitrogen has the characteristic of inhibiting early growth but was found to have a quality favorable to long-term growth resulting from water containing ability and the supply of organic mater and is judged to be a material to replace or complement existing base materials.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.185-194
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• 2022

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world and is the second largest traded commodity after petroleum. Due to the great demand of this product, large amounts of waste is generated in the coffee industry, which are toxic and represent serious environmental problems. This study aims to study the possibility of recycling spent coffee grounds (SCG) as a mineral admixture by replacing the cement in the manufacturing of concrete. To recycle the coffee g rounds, the SCG was dried to remove moisture and fired in a kiln at 850 ℃ for 8 hours. Carbonized coffee grounds are produced as coffee grounds ash (CGA) through ball mill grinding. The chemical composition of the prepared coffee grounds ash was investigated using X-ray fluorescence (XFR). According to the chemical composition analysis, the major elements of coffee grounds ash are K₂O(51.74 %), CaO(15.92 %), P₂O₅(14.39 %), MgO(7.74 %) and SO₃(6.89 %), with small amounts of F₂O₃(0.66 %), SiO₂(0.59 %) and Al₂O₃(0.31 %) content. To evaluate quality and mechanical properties, substitutions of 5, 10, and 15 wt.% of coffee grounds ash (CGA) were tested. From the quality test results, the 28-day activity index of CGA5 reached 80 %, and the flow value ratio reached 96 %, which is comparable to the minimum requirement for second-grade FA. From the test results of the mortar, the optimal results have been found in specimens with 5 wt-% coffee grounds ash, showing good mechanical and physical properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.134-134
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• 2019

Utilization of organic waste as a renewable energy source is promising for sustainability and mitigation of climate change. Pyrolysis converts organic waste to gas, oil, and biochar by incomplete biomass combustion. Biochar is widely used as a soil conditioner and adsorbent. Biochar adsorbs/desorbs metals and ions depending on the soil environment and condition to act as a nutrient buffer in soils. Biochar is also regarded as a carbon storage by fixation of organic carbon. Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) are strictly controlled in many wastewater treatment plants because it causes eutrophication in water bodies. P and N is removed by biological and chemical methods in wastewater treatment plants and transferred to sludge for disposal. On the other hand, P is an irreplaceable essential element for all living organisms and its resource (phosphate rock) is estimated about 100 years of economical mining. Therefore, P and N recovery from waste and wastewater is a critical issue for sustainable human society. For the purpose, intensive researches have been carried out to remove and recover P and N from waste and wastewater. Previous studies have shown that biochars can adsorb and desorbed phosphates implying that biochars could be a complementary fertilizer. However, most of the conventional biochar have limited capacity to adsorb phosphates and nitrate. Recent studies have focused on biochar impregnated with metal salts to improve phosphates and nitrate adsorption by synthesizing biochars with novel structures and surface properties. Metal salts and metal oxides have been used for the surface modification of biochars. If P removal is the only concern, P adsorption kinetics and capacity are the only important factors. If both of P and N removal and the application of recovery are concerned, however, P and N desorption characteristics and bioavailability are also critical factors to be considered. Most of the researches on impregnated biochars have focused on P removal efficiency and kinetics. In this study, coffee waste is thermally treated to produce biochar and it was impregnated with Mg/Al to enhance phosphates and nitrate adsorption/desorption and P bioavailability to increase its value as a fertilizer. Kinetics of phosphates and nitrate adsorption/desorption and bioavailability analysis were carried out to estimate its potential as a P and N removal adsorbent in wasewater and a fertilizer in soil.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.70-81
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• 2021

This study evaluated the recyclability of waste plastics in used coffee capsules disposed of as municipal waste. For recycling, a new material separation process was developed to remove the coffee grounds through primary crushing, washing, sieving, and secondary crushing, followed by corona discharge electrostatic separation. Furthermore, for the under 10 mm size fraction samples, the aluminum removal and the plastic recovery were 95.4% and 98.3%, respectively, under optimal conditions. In addition, for the 15 mm fraction samples, the aluminum removal and the plastic recovery were 91.3% and 97.2%, respectively. To evaluate the recyclability of the separated waste plastics, the samples were pelleted, and their material properties were analyzed. No hazardous substances were detected, and the results were similar to those for homo-PP. Therefore, it was confirmed tha t sufficient functiona lity existed a s recycled PP. However, owing to the da rk color of the pellets, limited applications to black or dark products are expected.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.264-269
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• 2023

Spent coffee grounds (SCG) are a ubiquitous byproduct of coffee consumption, representing a significant waste management challenge, as well as an untapped resource for economic development and sustainability. Improper disposal of SCG can result in environmental problems such as methane emissions and leachate production. This study aims to investigate the physicochemical properties of SCG and their potential as a reinforcement material in polypropylene (PP) to fabricate an eco-friendly composite via extrusion and injection molding, with SCG filler ratios ranging from 5-20%. To evaluate the effect of SCG on the morphological and mechanical properties of the bio- composite, thermogravimetric analysis, SEM, tensile, flexural, and impact tests were conducted. The results demonstrated that the addition of SCG lead to a slight increase in brittleness of the composite but did not significantly affect its mechanical properties. Impressively, the presence of a significant organic component in SCG contributed to the enhanced thermal performance of PP/SCG composites. This improvement was evident in terms of increased thermal stability, delayed onset of degradation, and higher maximum degradation temperature as compared to pure PP. These findings suggest that SCG has potential as a filler material for PP composites, with the ability to enhance the material's properties without compromising overall performance.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2018

In this paper, we investigated the alternative sources of limestone. Oyster shell waste originated from aquaculture that causes a major disposal landfill problem in coastal sectors in southeast Korea. Their inadequate disposal causes a significant environmental problems araised. Bio mineralization leads to the formation of oyster shells and consists $CaCO_3$ as a major phase with a small amount of organic matter. It is a good alternative material source instead of natural lime stone. The utilization of oyster shell waste for industrial applications instead of natural limestone is major advantage for conservation of natural limestone. The present work describes the limestone and oyster shells hydraulic activity and chemical composition and characteristics are most similar for utilization of oyster shell waste instead of natural limestone.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.41-48
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• 2015

Coffee consumption in Korea has been currently growing every year, and as a result, approximately 0.2 million tons of Spent Coffee Grounds (SCG) are being created every year. SCG, which is waste organic material, is often classified as food waste and an annual amount of 0.27 million ton is discarded while containing moisture and provoking serious environmental issue. Physico-chemical characteristics of SCG were analyzed in this study and medium and long-term growth experiments were conducted in order to evaluate its utilization potential. According to the experiment results, mixing SCG into the previous base material resulted in accelerated germination and growth in the mid-term compared to previous base material alone, despite slower germination or growth in early stage. Especially, it showed lower withering rate and decrease in various symptoms that are caused by nutrition shortage in case of discontinued sprinkling, etc., compared to the previous base material. Hence, while SCG has a feature of hindering early development due to its feature of waste organic material that is rich in nitrogen, its benefit for long-term growth coming its moisturizing ability and supply of organic matter was confirmed in the study. On balance, SCG is believed to be a material that can replace or complement the previous base materials.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2022

This work examined the effect of mixing transition metal-based additives [FeCl₃, Fe-containing paper mill sludge (PMS), CoCl₂·H₂O, ZrO₂, and α-Fe₂O₃] on the thermochemical conversion of coffee waste (CW) in carbon dioxide-assisted pyrolysis process. Compared to the generation amounts of syngas (0.7 mole% H₂ & 3.0 mole% CO) at 700℃ from single pyrolysis of CW, co-pyrolysis in the presence of Fe- or Zr-based additives resulted in the enhanced production of syngas, with the measured concentrations of H₂ and CO ranging 1.1-3.4 mole% and 4.6-13.2 mole% at the same temperature, respectively. In addition, α-Fe₂O₃ biochar possessed the adsorption capacity of As(V) (19.3 mg g^-1) comparable to that of ZrO₂-biochar (21.2 mg g^-1). In conclusion, solid-type Fe-based additive can be highly considered as an efficient catalyst to simultaneously produce syngas (H₂ & CO) as fuel energy resource and metal-biochar as sorbent.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.157-163
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• 2012

Pleurotus eryngii. one of the most popular edible mushrooms, has been well known for its biological activities such as antioxidation, antitumor and immune modulation. Spent coffee ground(SCG) that is a waste product from the coffee industry has been continuously investigated for its reutilization. In this study, SCG was added to the fungal cultuvation medium and analyzed for its effect on the growth and physiological activity of P. eryngii mycelia. It was clearly demonstrated that SCG could accelarate mycelia growth. 1% SCG culture was very notable by showing 2.5-fold higher dry cell weight comapred to the control culture, which suggested SCG as an excellent activator for the growth of P. eryngii mycelia. By the addition of SCG, polyphenol content was increased by two fold but there was no change in polysaccharide content. In the analysis of DPPH scavenging activity, SCG was determined as a valuable source in order to significantly increase the antioxidative activity of the mycelium.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.168-176
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• 2019

Spent coffee is one of biomass sources to be converted into bio-oil. However, the bio-oil should be further upgraded to achieve a higher quality bio-oil because of its high oxygen content. Deoxygenation under hydrotreating using different catalysts (catalytic hydrodeoxygenation; HDO) is considered as one of the promising methods for upgrading bio-oil from pyrolysis by removal of O-containing groups. In this study, the HDO of spent coffee bio-oil, which was collected from fast pyrolysis of spent coffee ($460^{\circ}C$, $2.0{\times}U_{mf}$), was carried out in an autoclave. The product yields were 72.16 ~ 96.76 wt% of bio-oil, 0 ~ 18.59 wt% of char, and 3.24 ~ 9.25 wt% of gas obtained in 30 min at temperatures between $250^{\circ}C$ and $350^{\circ}C$ and pressure in the range of 3 to 9 bar. The highest yield of bio-oil of 97.13% was achieved at $250^{\circ}C$ and 3 bar, with high selectivity of D-Allose. The carbon number distribution of the bio-oil was analyzed based on the concept of simulated distillation. The $C_{12}{\sim}C_{14}$ fraction increased from 22.98 wt% to 27.30 wt%, whereas the $C_{19}{\sim}C_{26}$ fraction decreased from 24.74 wt% to 17.18 wt% with increasing reaction time. Bio-oil yields were slightly decreased when the HZSM-5 catalyst and dolomite were used. The selectivity of CO was increased at the HZSM-5 catalyst and decreased at the dolomite.