Abstract
Spent coffee ground (SCG) consists of the remainder left after brewing the coffee grounds. Due to its valuable composition, SCG can provide sufficient nutrients and support plant growth, particularly in arid agricultural lands where soil fertility needs to be improved. However, the effects of SCG are highly dependent on their nature (raw or treated) and the application rate. SCG treatments namely composting and vermi-composting or pyrolysis could result in a more useful product for agricultural use, making it easy to overcome the SCG phytotoxic effect. In this paper a critical review of the researches on SCG was presented. The aim of this review was (1) to highlight the difference between the characteristics of composted, vermi-composted and pyrolyzed SCG with respect to the raw one, and (2) to outline their impacts on both of the physico-chemical properties of the soil as well as the growth of plant. In summary, adding raw SCG may have benefits for physical chemical properties of the soil but not for plant growth, because of the phytotoxic components including polyphenols. Therefore, the application of raw SCG for plant production purposes, even at low rates (equivalent to 2.5%) is not recommended. The negative effect on plant growth can be overcome by SCG vermi-composting or composting/pyrolysis at 270 and 400 °C. Therefore, vermi-composting can be efficiently applied for SCG pre-treatment before their reuse as a soil fertilizer to ameliorate the properties of the soil and subsequently plant nutrition.
Graphical abstract
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.
References
Adi A, Noor Z (2009) Waste recycling: Utilization of coffee grounds and kitchen waste in vermicomposting. Biores Technol 100(2):1027–1030
Alados CL, Puigdefábregas J, Martínez-Fernández J (2011) Ecological and socio-economical thresholds of land and plant-community degradation in semi-arid Mediterranean areas of Southeastern Spain. J Arid Environ 75(12):1368–1376
Andrade TS, Vakros J, Mantzavinos D, Lianos P (2020) Biochar obtained by carbonization of spent coffee grounds and its application in the construction of an energy storage device. Chem Eng J Adv 4:100061
Aranyos JT, Tomócsik A, Makádi M, Mészáros J, Blaskó L (2016) Changes in physical properties of sandy soil after long-term compost treatment. Int Agrophys 30(3):269
Atabani A, Mercimek S, Arvindnarayan S, Shobana S, Kumar G, Cadir M, AaH A-M (2018) Valorization of spent coffee grounds recycling as a potential alternative fuel resource in Turkey: an experimental study. J Air Waste Manag Assoc 68(3):196–214
Brinton WF (2000) Compost quality standards and guidelines: an international view. Woods End Research Laboratory Inc, ME
Campos-Vega R, Loarca-Pina G, Vergara-Castaneda HA, Oomah BD (2015) Spent coffee grounds: a review on current research and future prospects. Trends Food Sci Technol 45(1):24–36
Cervera-Mata A, Pastoriza S, Rufián-Henares JÁ, Párraga J, Martín-García JM, Delgado G (2018) Impact of spent coffee grounds as organic amendment on soil fertility and lettuce growth in two Mediterranean agricultural soils. Arch Agron Soil Sci 64(6):790–804
Cervera-Mata A, Navarro-Alarcón M, Delgado G, Pastoriza S, Montilla-Gómez J, Llopis J, Sánchez-González C, Rufián-Henares JÁ (2019) Spent coffee grounds improve the nutritional value in elements of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and are an ecological alternative to inorganic fertilizers. Food Chem 282:1–8
Cervera-Mata A, Navarro-Alarcon M, Rufián-Henares JÁ, Pastoriza S, Montilla-Gómez J, Delgado G (2020) Phytotoxicity and chelating capacity of spent coffee grounds: two contrasting faces in its use as soil organic amendment. Sci Total Environ 717:137247
Cervera-Mata A, Aranda V, Ontiveros-Ortega A, Comino F, Martin-Garcia J, Vela-Cano M, Delgado G (2021) Hydrophobicity and surface free energy to assess spent coffee grounds as soil amendment. Relationships Soil Qual CATENA 196:104826
Chojnacka K, Moustakas K, Witek-Krowiak A (2020) Bio-based fertilizers: a practical approach towards circular economy. Biores Technol 295:122223
Chrysargyris A, Antoniou O, Xylia P, Petropoulos S, Tzortzakis N (2021) The use of spent coffee grounds in growing media for the production of Brassica seedlings in nurseries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28(19):24279–24290
Colantoni A, Paris E, Bianchini L, Ferri S, Marcantonio V, Carnevale M, Palma A, Civitarese V, Gallucci F (2021) Spent coffee ground characterization, pelletization test and emissions assessment in the combustion process. Sci Rep 11(1):1–14
Comino F, Aranda V, Domínguez-Vidal A, Ayora-Cañada MJ (2017) Thermal destruction of organic waste hydrophobicity for agricultural soils application. J Environ Manage 202:94–105
Corrêa JLG, Santos JCP, Fonseca BE, Carvalho AGdS (2014) Drying of spent coffee grounds in a cyclonic dryer.
Cruz R, Cardoso MM, Fernandes L, Oliveira M, Mendes E, Baptista P, Morais S, Casal S (2012) Espresso coffee residues: a valuable source of unextracted compounds. J Agric Food Chem 60(32):7777–7784
Cruz R, Morais S, Mendes E, Pereira JA, Baptista P, Casal S (2014) Improvement of vegetables elemental quality by espresso coffee residues. Food Chem 148:294–299
Cruz R, Mendes E, Torrinha Á, Morais S, Pereira JA, Baptista P, Casal S (2015) Revalorization of spent coffee residues by a direct agronomic approach. Food Res Int 73:190–196
Dafouz R, Caceres N, Rodriguez-Gil JL, Mastroianni N, de Alda ML, Barceló D, de Miguel ÁG, Valcarcel Y (2018) Does the presence of caffeine in the marine environment represent an environmental risk? A regional and global study. Sci Total Environ 615:632–642
Dávila-Guzmán NE, de Jesús C-Córdova F, Soto-Regalado E, Rangel-Mendez JR, Díaz-Flores PE, Garza-Gonzalez MT, Loredo-Medrano JA (2013) Copper biosorption by spent coffee ground: equilibrium, kinetics, and mechanism. Clean-Soil Air Water 41(6):557–564
Dodgen L, Li J, Wu X, Lu Z, Gan J (2014) Transformation and removal pathways of four common PPCP/EDCs in soil. Environ Pollut 193:29–36
Esmaeelnejad L, Shorafa M, Gorji M, Hosseini SM (2016) Enhancement of physical and hydrological properties of a sandy loam soil via application of different biochar particle sizes during incubation period. Span J Agric Res 14(2):22
Fersi M, Mbarki K, Gargouri K, Mechichi T, Hachicha R (2019) Assessment of organic matter biodegradation and physico-chemical parameters variation during co-composting of lignocellulosic wastes with Trametes trogii inoculation. Environ Eng Res 24(4):670–679
Getachew AT, Chun BS (2017) Influence of pretreatment and modifiers on subcritical water liquefaction of spent coffee grounds: a green waste valorization approach. J Clean Prod 142:3719–3727
González-Moreno M, García Gracianteparaluceta B, Marcelino Sádaba S, Zaratiegui Urdin J, Robles Domínguez E, Ezcurdia P, Seco Meneses A (2020) Feasibility of vermicomposting of spent coffee grounds and Silverskin from coffee industries: a laboratory study. Agronomy 10(8):1125
Hachicha S, Cegarra J, Sellami F, Hachicha R, Drira N, Medhioub K, Ammar E (2009) Elimination of polyphenols toxicity from olive mill wastewater sludge by its co-composting with sesame bark. J Hazard Mater 161(2–3):1131–1139
Hachicha R, Rekik O, Hachicha S, Ferchichi M, Woodward S, Moncef N, Cegarra J, Mechichi T (2012) Co-composting of spent coffee ground with olive mill wastewater sludge and poultry manure and effect of Trametes versicolor inoculation on the compost maturity. Chemosphere 88(6):677–682
Halbac-Cotoara-Zamfir R, Smiraglia D, Quaranta G, Salvia R, Salvati L, Giménez-Morera A (2020) Land degradation and mitigation policies in the Mediterranean region: a brief commentary. Sustainability 12(20):8313
Haque MM, Datta J, Ahmed T, Ehsanullah M, Karim MN, Akter MS, El Sabagh A (2021) Organic amendments boost soil fertility and rice productivity and reduce methane emissions from paddy fields under sub-tropical conditions. Sustainability 13(6):3103
Hardgrove SJ, Livesley SJ (2016) Applying spent coffee grounds directly to urban agriculture soils greatly reduces plant growth. Urban for Urban Green 18:1–8
Healy MG, Ryan PC, Fenton O, Peyton DP, Wall D, Morrison L (2016) Bioaccumulation of metals in ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) following the application of lime stabilised, thermally dried and anaerobically digested sewage sludge. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 130:303–309
Hechmi S, Hamdi H, Mokni-Tlili S, Ghorbel M, Khelil MN, Zoghlami IR, Benzarti S, Jellali S, Hassen A, Jedidi N (2020) Impact of urban sewage sludge on soil physico-chemical properties and phytotoxicity as influenced by soil texture and reuse conditions. Wiley Online Library
Hussain N, Chantrapromma S, Suwunwong T, Phoungthong K (2020) Cadmium (II) removal from aqueous solution using magnetic spent coffee ground biochar: Kinetics, isotherm and thermodynamic adsorption. Mater Res Exp 7(8):085503. https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/abae27
ICO (2021) International Coffee Organization-Coffee Market Report. https://www.ico.org/documents/cy2021-22/cmr-1121-e.pdf. Accessed Jan 2022
Kargas G, Londra P, Sgoubopoulou A (2020) Comparison of soil EC values from methods based on 1: 1 and 1: 5 soil to water ratios and ECe from saturated paste extract based method. Water 12(4):1010
Kasongo R, Verdoodt A, Kanyankagote P, Baert G, Ranst EV (2011) Coffee waste as an alternative fertilizer with soil improving properties for sandy soils in humid tropical environments. Soil Use Manag 27(1):94–102
Keeflee SNKMN, Zain WNAWM, Nor MNM, Yong SK (2020) Growth and metal uptake of spinach with application of co-compost of cat manure and spent coffee ground. Heliyon 6(9):e05086
Keerthanan S, Gunawardane C, Somasundaram T, Jayampathi T, Jayasinghe C, Vithanage M (2021a) Immobilization and retention of caffeine in soil amended with Ulva reticulata biochar. J Environ Manag 281:111852
Keerthanan S, Jayasinghe C, Biswas JK, Vithanage M (2021b) Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) in the environment: Plant uptake, translocation, bioaccumulation, and human health risks. Crit Rev Environ Sci Technol 51(12):1221–1258
Kim M-S, Kim J-G (2020) Adsorption characteristics of spent coffee grounds as an alternative adsorbent for cadmium in solution. Environments 7(4):24. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7040024
Kim H-J, Cho S, Jacobs DR Jr, Park K (2014) Instant coffee consumption may be associated with higher risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adults. Diabetes Res Clin Pract 106(1):145–153
Kopeć M, Baran A, Mierzwa-Hersztek M, Gondek K, Chmiel MJ (2018) Effect of the addition of biochar and coffee grounds on the biological properties and ecotoxicity of composts. Waste Biomass Valoriz 9(8):1389–1398
Kourmentza C, Economou CN, Tsafrakidou P, Kornaros M (2018) Spent coffee grounds make much more than waste: exploring recent advances and future exploitation strategies for the valorization of an emerging food waste stream. J Clean Prod 172:980–992
Kovalcik A, Obruca S, Marova I (2018) Valorization of spent coffee grounds: a review. Food Bioprod Process 110:104–119
Król K, Gantner M, Tatarak A, Hallmann E (2020) The content of polyphenols in coffee beans as roasting, origin and storage effect. Eur Food Res Technol 246(1):33–39
Kutlu O, Aydin-Kandemir F, Sarptas H (2021) Assessing primary areas for a sustainable biochar application in soil by using GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation. Clean Techn Environ Policy 23:2443–2455
Liu K, Price G (2011) Evaluation of three composting systems for the management of spent coffee grounds. Biores Technol 102(17):7966–7974
McNutt J (2019) Spent coffee grounds: a review on current utilization. J Ind Eng Chem 71:78–88
Moreno MT, Carmona E, de Santiago A, Ordovás J, Delgado A (2016) Olive husk compost improves the quality of intensively cultivated agricultural soils. Land Degrad Dev 27(2):449–459
Murthy PS, Naidu MM (2012) Sustainable management of coffee industry by-products and value addition: a review. Resour Conserv Recycl 66:45–58
Mussatto SI, Carneiro LM, Silva JP, Roberto IC, Teixeira JA (2011) A study on chemical constituents and sugars extraction from spent coffee grounds. Carbohyd Polym 83(2):368–374
Page JC, Arruda NP, Freitas SP (2017) Crude ethanolic extract from spent coffee grounds: Volatile and functional properties. Waste Manag 69:463–469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.08.043
Palansooriya KN, Ok YS, Awad YM, Lee SS, Sung J-K, Koutsospyros A, Moon DH (2019) Impacts of biochar application on upland agriculture: A review. J Environ Manage 234:52–64
Picariello E, Pucci L, Carotenuto M, Libralato G, Lofrano G, Baldantoni D (2021) Compost and sewage sludge for the improvement of soil chemical and biological quality of Mediterranean agroecosystems. Sustainability 13(1):26
Picó Y, Alvarez-Ruiz R, Alfarhan AH, El-Sheikh MA, Alshahrani HO, Barceló D (2020) Pharmaceuticals, pesticides, personal care products and microplastics contamination assessment of Al-Hassa irrigation network (Saudi Arabia) and its shallow lakes. Sci Total Environ 701:135021
Ribeiro JP, Vicente ED, Gomes AP, Nunes MI, Alves C, Tarelho LA (2017) Effect of industrial and domestic ash from biomass combustion, and spent coffee grounds, on soil fertility and plant growth: experiments at field conditions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24(18):15270–15277
Ronga D, Pane C, Zaccardelli M, Pecchioni N (2016) Use of spent coffee ground compost in peat-based growing media for the production of basil and tomato potting plants. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 47(3):356–368
Ronga D, Caradonia F, Parisi M, Bezzi G, Parisi B, Allesina G, Pedrazzi S, Francia E (2020) Using digestate and biochar as fertilizers to improve processing tomato production sustainability. Agronomy 10(1):138
Sall SN, Masse D, Hélène Diallo N, Sow TMB, Hien E, Guisse A (2016) Effects of residue quality and soil mineral N on microbial activities and soil aggregation in a tropical sandy soil in Senegal. Eur J Soil Biol 75:62–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejsobi.2016.04.009
Sanchez-Hernandez JC, Domínguez J (2017) Vermicompost derived from spent coffee grounds: assessing the potential for enzymatic bioremediation. Handbook of Coffee processing by-Products. Elsevier, pp 369–398
Santos C, Fonseca J, Aires A (2017) Joao COUNTINHO a Henrique TRINDADE: Effect of different rates of spent coffee grounds (SCG) on composting process, gaseous emissions and quality of end-product. Waste Manag 59:37–47
Seco Meneses A, Espuelas Zuazu S, Marcelino Sádaba S, Echeverría AM (2020) Prieto Cobo E (2020) Characterization of biomass briquettes from spent coffee grounds and xanthan gum using low pressure and temperature. Bioenergy Res 13:369–377
Shahid SA, Zaman M, Heng L (2018) Introduction to soil salinity, sodicity and diagnostics techniques. Guideline for salinity assessment, mitigation and adaptation using nuclear and related techniques. Springer, pp 1–42
Singh R, Srivastava P, Verma P, Singh P, Bhadouria R, Singh VK, Singh H, Raghubanshi A (2020) Exploring soil responses to various organic amendments under dry tropical agroecosystems. Climate change and soil interactions. Elsevier, pp 583–611
Soil Survey Staff (1999) Soil taxonomy: A basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys. 2 edn. Natural Resources Conservation Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook 436
Stylianou M, Agapiou A, Omirou M, Vyrides I, Ioannides IM, Maratheftis G, Fasoula D (2018) Converting environmental risks to benefits by using spent coffee grounds (SCG) as a valuable resource. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25(36):35776–35790
Tangmankongworakoon N (2019) An approach to produce biochar from coffee residue for fuel and soil amendment purpose. Int J Recycl Org Waste Agric 8(1):37–44
Tomczyk A, Sokołowska Z, Boguta P (2020) Biochar physicochemical properties: pyrolysis temperature and feedstock kind effects. Rev Environ Sci Bio/technol 19(1):191–215
Truong THA, Marschner P (2018) Respiration, available N and microbial biomass N in soil amended with mixes of organic materials differing in C/N ratio and decomposition stage. Geoderma 319:167–174
Vardon D, Moser B, Zheng W, Witkin K, Evangelista R, Strathmann T, Rajagopalan K, Sharma B (2013) Complete utilization of spent coffee grounds to produce biodiesel, bio-oil, and biochar. ACS Sustain Chem Eng 1:1286–1294
Vela-Cano M, Cervera-Mata A, Purswani J, Pozo C, Delgado G, González-López J (2019) Bacterial community structure of two Mediterranean agricultural soils amended with spent coffee grounds. Appl Soil Ecol 137:12–20
Vigardt A (2012) Influence of coffee vermicompost on growth and nutrient quality of greenhouse spinach and field grown green bell peppers. Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Vítěz T, Koutný T, Šotnar M, Chovanec J (2016) On the spent coffee grounds biogas production. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis 64(4):1279–1282
Zhao S-X, Ta N, Wang X-D (2017) Effect of temperature on the structural and physicochemical properties of biochar with apple tree branches as feedstock material. Energies 10(9):1293
Zoghlami RI, Hamdi H, Mokni-Tlili S, Hechmi S, Khelil MN, Aissa NB, Moussa M, Bousnina H, Benzarti S, Jedidi N (2020) Monitoring the variation of soil quality with sewage sludge application rates in absence of rhizosphere effect. Int Soil Water Conserv Res 8(3):245–252
Zoghlami RI, Hechmi S, Weghlani R, Jedidi N, Moussa M (2021) Biochar derived from domestic sewage sludge: influence of temperature pyrolysis on biochars’ chemical properties and phytotoxicity. J Chem. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/1818241
Funding
The authors have not disclosed any funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
Authors have no competing interests that are relevant to the content of this article to declare.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Hechmi, S., Guizani, M., Kallel, A. et al. Impact of raw and pre-treated spent coffee grounds on soil properties and plant growth: a mini-review. Clean Techn Environ Policy 25, 2831–2843 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-023-02544-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-023-02544-w