Green Home Building Design With Coffee Composite Building Materials

Who said coffee is only for drinking?
Through some very innovative thinking, students at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia, have built what is considered the first coffee wood composite house.
This is a very appropriate accomplishment for a top academic institution in a country known for its quality coffee. From the seed to the cup and now to sweet, sweet coffee home!
How did they do it?
Graduate engineering students began academic work about building homes with a focus on "design for sustainability." Their professor, Jaime Medina, Director of the Research Center of Polymer Processing ("Centro de Investigacion en Procesamiento de Polimeros) of the University of the Andes in Bogota supervised the project.
The main objectives were,
• Low construction costs. Light weight. Portability.
• Ease of maintenance. Non toxicity.
• Flexibility. Sturdiness.
• Identifying an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional building materials such as wood.
• Tree logging is responsible for significant deforestation in the country.
• Reducing the use of chemicals in the construction process to promote good health standards.
• Over a period of two years, the students evaluated multiple eco-friendly materials to build homes such as banana plants, palm trees, bamboo, coffee, etc.
To understand why coffee became the front runner for the new construction material in this academic project, it is important to review some basics about the steps in the coffee processing. From the seed to the cup, coffee goes through several natural steps,
• Planting the coffee trees and cultivating them for years before they bear fruit (coffee cherries).
• Harvesting the cherries using "strip picking" or "selective picking" methods.
• Processing the coffee cherries using "dry method" or "wet method."
• Drying the beans if they have been processed using the "wet method."
• Milling the beans to remove the parchment layer (endocarp) from wet processed coffee.
• Hulling dry processed coffee to remove the entire dried husk of the dried cherries.
• At every step of its production, coffee is repeatedly tested for quality and taste.
• Exporting is the next step for the milled coffee also called "'green coffee."
• Finally, roasting and brewing coffee completes the cycle to the cup from the seed.
Each of these steps utilizes every part of the coffee tree and its fruit except for the dried husk which has been usually considered garbage and discarded --until now!
• Coffee garbage ("dried husk" or "cisco" in Spanish) became the innovative ingredient the students mixed with recycled PVC to design pre-fabricated panels for home construction.
• The result is a material that is strong, light, practical, inexpensive, easy to build and very eco friendly.
• The coffee composite building panels offer easy installation and durability.
• It is possible to build a house from this new material in about one week.
• This is an excellent solution to address population housing needs among low income groups.
At first glance, it is difficult to spot the difference between a regular prefabricated wood laminate panel and the new coffee composite panels.
• What appears to be a natural wood grain pattern is really dried coffee husk panel mixed in with recycled PVC for a nice and useful finish.
• The panels look almost like pieces of a giant Lego game that you can fit, one by one, without using any glue or cement to form the house.
Materials of this type are available elsewhere in the world, commonly referred to as "plastic wood composite." What is different with this project is that in Colombia, they did not use sawdust or wood. Instead, the main ingredient is dried coffee husks. This is a first for such application!
• The project received the support of "Colciencias," the government institute created to support scientific research in Colombia
• The new production material is now branded under the name Wood Pecker (how appropriate!).
• The goal is to commercialize the use of this new home building material.
Adding a coffee composite building material to the list of Colombian exports some day would certainly be most appropriate for this coffee exporting country. It makes you wonder, what will they think of next?
So, here's a toast to innovation and a perfect time to enjoy a good cup of Colombian Supremo!
Author Bio:
Timothy ("Tim") S. Collins, the author, is called by those who know him "Gourmet Coffee Guy."
He is an expert in article writing who has done extensive research online and offline in his area of expertise, coffee marketing, as well as in other areas of personal and professional interest.
Come visit the author's website: http://www.ourgourmetcoffee.com
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