New use for coffee that kills dodgy smells

Of course, the number one use for coffee is to create a delicious beverage that has made many people the world over fall in love with it.

The coffee industry is getting stronger and stronger, notwithstanding the economic climate.

There are other uses for coffee too. Perhaps you have heard about the use of coffee grounds for mulching for instance?

There is another recent news story about the uses to which coffee grounds can be put too.

What is it? They can be used to ‘sop up’ the smelly gas in raw sewage which makes it stink – called hydrogen sulphide.

Quite an unexpected use of the coffee grounds, no?

Scientists have carried out some tests at the City College of New York to discover that caffeine has a particular property which increases the ‘smell-fighting’ power of any filters which use the particular coffee ground elements.

Caffeine, apparently, contains nitrogen, which boosts the capacity of carbon (used in filters) to clean sulphur from the air.

Of course this discovery is especially welcome when you think about the quantity of coffee grounds that are a waste product in our substantial coffee industry.

The grounds are effectively an environmentally friendly substance.

Other ‘natural’ materials are already used with carbon in filters – such as coal, coconut shells and peat.

However, coffee waste is already around in abundance.

The team who are carrying out the research project noted using the coffee grounds to create a sort of charcoal.