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Upcycling Spent Coffee Grounds: Approaches, Emerging Concepts and Applications
Sreehitha Pilli1, Jeyan Arthur Moses1, Senthilkumar Thiruppathi2
1Department of Food Process Engineering, National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management, Thanjavur, MoFPI, Government of India, Thanjavur 613005, Tamil Nadu, India.
Foods (Basel, Switzerland)
|June 26, 2026
Summary
Spent coffee grounds (SCG) offer valuable compounds for reuse, but challenges like variability and cost hinder industrial application. Future research should focus on scalable, energy-efficient processes for sustainable SCG valorization.
Area of Science:
- Waste Management & Valorization
- Green Chemistry & Biorefining
- Sustainable Materials Science
Background:
- Millions of tonnes of spent coffee grounds (SCG) are generated annually, presenting waste disposal challenges and loss of valuable compounds.
- SCG contain caffeine, fibre, phenolics, antioxidants, proteins, and lipids, offering significant potential for valorization across various industries.
- Current coffee consumption trends exacerbate the environmental and economic impact of SCG waste.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent advancements in SCG valorization across food, nutraceutical, bioenergy, and packaging sectors.
- To highlight pretreatment, extraction, and bioconversion methods for SCG valorization.
- To identify research gaps, limitations, and future directions for sustainable SCG utilization.
Main Methods:
- Comprehensive literature review of recent advancements in SCG valorization technologies.
- Focus on green extraction and bioconversion techniques within integrated biorefinery systems.
- Analysis of challenges including composition variability, energy intensity, and techno-economic constraints.
Main Results:
- SCG valorization is increasingly oriented towards multi-product biorefineries utilizing green technologies.
- High-value compounds can be recovered for both food and non-food applications.
- Significant limitations to industrial scalability persist, including process variability and unresolved regulatory issues.
Conclusions:
- Integrated biorefinery systems using green technologies show promise for SCG valorization.
- Addressing challenges like composition variability, energy efficiency, and regulatory hurdles is crucial for commercial deployment.
- Future research priorities include scalable processes, AI-assisted optimization, and toxicological validation for sustainable SCG utilization.
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