Scientists strengthen concrete by 30 percent with used coffee grounds::Researchers in Australia have found a new use for old coffee grounds: concrete doping!.
Can I also strengthen my coffee by adding a little concrete mix?
The lime that concrete is made of is alkaline, so if you’re very careful a little bit may simply neutralise the acid. Neutralised… I think it’s just chalk? Don’t do this though, it wouldn’t take much to mess it up and do serious damage to your insides. Plus idk if it’s actually just chalk. Also if you wash your hands with vinegar after a day working with cement it gets rid of the horrible dried out feeling and feels nice & creamy, because it neutralises the base.
This is funny because when I was a plumber after particularly dirty days I used to wash my hands with cement and I used to think that made my hands feel smooth
Makes sense if you were working with strong acids. Bleach or baking soda might’ve had a similar effect.
Can we call it cofcrete?
From a materials science perspective, a jump of 30% for a material that’s been well known for thousands of years seems unlikely.
Well, not really. They only mentioned compressive strength, so other important qualities and measures could be worse in unacceptable ways.
Or maybe it’s great. https://www.concretecentre.com/Specification/Innovative-concrete/Charcoal-Concrete.aspx
This is the best summary I could come up with:
At the same time, we generate about 10 billion kilograms of used coffee grounds over the same span — coffee grounds which a team of researchers from RMIT University in Australia have discovered can be used as a silica substitute in the concrete production process that, in the proper proportions, yields a significantly stronger chemical bond than sand alone.
“The disposal of organic waste poses an environmental challenge as it emits large amounts of greenhouse gases including methane and carbon dioxide, which contribute to climate change,” lead author of the study, Dr Rajeev Roychand of RMIT’s School of Engineering, said in a recent release.
He notes that Australia alone produces 75 million kilograms of used coffee grounds each year, most of which ends up in landfills.
In order to make the grounds more compatible, the team experimented with pyrolyzing the materials at 350 and 500 degrees C, then substituting them in for sand in 5, 10, 15 and 20 percentages (by volume) for standard concrete mixtures.
“The concrete industry has the potential to contribute significantly to increasing the recycling of organic waste such as used coffee,” added study co-author Dr Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch, a Vice-Chancellor’s Indigenous Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT.
"Our research is in the early stages, but these exciting findings offer an innovative way to greatly reduce the amount of organic waste that goes to landfill,” where its decomposition would generate large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The original article contains 381 words, the summary contains 246 words. Saved 35%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I only use the finest Portland Arabica for my concrete needs.
