Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology have achieved an innovative breakthrough, with bricks made from coffee grounds poised to soon reshape Australia's construction industry and its carbon footprint.

Led by Dr. Yi Huang, the project has reached a significant commercial milestone—an intellectual property licensing agreement with Green Brick to bring the product to market. This low-emission brick is produced by mixing coffee grounds from cafes and restaurants with clay and adding an alkaline activator. Through this process, the bricks are fired at a temperature of just 200°C, which is 80% lower than traditional firing temperatures.

Dr. Huang explained, "It consumes less energy, is produced faster, and aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with per unit of electricity by up to 80%." Traditional brick manufacturing is energy-intensive, heavily reliant on fossil fuel-powered high-temperature kilns. In contrast, this new method significantly reduces environmental pollution, offering a sustainable alternative for an industry facing increasing decarbonization pressures.

Sustainability is not the only advantage of these new bricks; their strength is twice that of Australia's minimum standard.

Philip Ng, founder of Green Brick, stated that this is not just a reinvention of bricks but a redefinition of the value of construction materials in a net-zero economy. He noted, "For the past century, materials have been judged by a single metric: cost per square meter. But in the next chapter, we will evaluate materials based on carbon content, transparency, and recyclability. These metrics favor an entirely new type of product."

Australia's thriving coffee consumption market sees over 1.3 million cups sold daily, generating approximately 10,000 tons of coffee grounds annually. Most of these grounds end up in landfills, where they release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Transforming coffee grounds into valuable construction products delivers dual environmental benefits: reducing landfill waste and lowering emissions.

As the project progresses, bricks made from coffee grounds are expected to spark a green revolution in Australia's construction industry.