Opportunity assessment for the valorization of coffee grounds.

• Grant number: 25/06057-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kelly Johana Dussán Medina
• Grantee: Letícia Vicente Moreno
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/03000-0 - Obtaining high value-added bioproducts from a by-product of the coffee production chain, AP.PNGP.PI

Abstract

Environmental preservation is a constant issue in the daily lives of many companies and organizations. A "green" image has become an important marketing element as customer expectations encourage organizations to reduce the environmental impact of their products. Increasingly, leaders are concerned about finding sustainable solutions when manufacturing products and providing services. From a logistics perspective, the activity of valorization represents an increase in the flow of goods, known as waste, from the consumer to the producer. Thus, the management of this flow is concerned with the flow of waste in the opposite direction to that of conventional supply chain management. Reverse logistics, for example, is one of the alternatives found to preserve the environment. This procedure allows the consumer to return packaging and waste to the company, so that the manufacturer itself is responsible for proper disposal. This method gained strength with the implementation of a National Solid Waste Policy, included in Law 12,305, which establishes an agreement between manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers, ensuring shared responsibility for the life cycle of products. With the rapid growth of coffee shops/cafeterias that has been occurring in Brazil, the large generation of coffee grounds is inevitable. Logistics then contributes as a solution to overcome this problem. Furthermore, combined with the green concept, it not only increases the value of coffee grounds, but also improves the quality of the environment around them. Therefore, instead of coffee grounds being unceremoniously discarded in the trash, the ideal would be for all coffee waste generated by coffee shops and/or industry to be recycled and reintroduced into commerce as new sustainable products, generating profits and creating companies and new jobs. To this end, technologies must be created that allow the recycling of coffee ground waste and transform it into advanced biofuels and sustainable biochemicals worldwide. Currently, the British company Bio-Bean transforms 50,000 tons of coffee waste into fuel per year, which represents 1 in 10 cups of coffee drunk each year in the United Kingdom. In this context, this project will model the logistics process for managing coffee grounds produced by coffee shops in the city of Araraquara/SP. (AU)