Coffee grounds could be used for water purification

A team of Italian scientists have published a paper in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering demonstrating how used coffee grounds can be employed for water remediation. The group led by Despina Fragouli of the Italian Institute of Technology, describe a simplified process for using powder made from used coffee grounds to remove heavy metals such as mercury and lead from water. The paper describes how turning used coffee grounds into a powder and then combining them with silicon and sugar can create filters that take 99 per cent of mercury and lead out of still water and up to 67 per cent out of flowing water.