A novel reforming approach of utilizing spent coffee grounds to produce iron

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide and thus, the high consumption of coffee yields a significant amount of waste in the form of spent grounds. The discarded coffee waste has a significant carbon content which can be used for iron and steelmaking applications. The steel demand is gradually increasing every year and the dependency of the ferrous industry majorly on the fossil fuels has been a global concern owing to various environmental factors. The present work demonstrates the potential of using a highly common, everyday bio-based waste material i.e. spent coffee grounds (SCGs) as a carbon resource to recover iron values. The current study was carried out using composite samples of iron oxide (Fe2O3 >= 99% pure, <5 mu m) with SCGs, Transformed-SCGs/T-SCGs (obtained by suitable heat treatment of SCGs) and Metallurgical coke (MC). The composite samples were subjected to a temperature range starting from 500 degrees C to 1550 degrees C. After analyzing all the results together, it was observed that the overall performance of the SCGs was better at lower temperatures and that of the T-SCGs was better at the higher temperatures, compared to that of MC. The use of SCGs in the ferrous industry will not only be helping in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions but also in energy consumption. Thus, the utilization of SCGs is a novel approach towards fossil fuel-free ferrous industry which is the need of future generation.