The Use of Regular and Roasted Mushroom Coffee Grounds to Create Biofuel
School Name
Spring Valley High School
Grade Level
10th Grade
Presentation Topic
Environmental Science
Presentation Type
Non-Mentored
Abstract
This study aimed to see if La Republica mushroom coffee could be used to create biofuel. Regular mushroom coffee was predicted to yield the most oil because it was likely to have less oil lost from roasting. Roasted and regular mushroom coffee was measured at 50 g for each trial and distilled with steam distillation equipment. The water/oil mixture from each was added to distilled water and then separated through a separator. The regular coffee yielded around 8 mL of oil and the regular yielded around 4.2 mL of oil. The NaOH was used to titrate the oil (oil from roasted and regular mushroom coffee were titrated separately) with alcohol and phenolphthalein. The amount of NaOH needed to neutralize was measured and found that the regular mushroom coffee required less NaOH to neutralize the oil. Meaning that the regular mushroom coffee was less acidic so regular mushroom coffee would be best to use as a source of biofuel. However, mushroom coffee produced a relatively low yield (around 8 g oil per 150 g) of oil so it was not very cost-effective. Normally, the use of a t-test with the H0: μ=μ, Ha: μ ≠ μ, and α = 0.05 would be needed, however, due to human errors, it was unable to be run. Overall, renewable resources such as foods like coffee and other materials with high oil content should be used to create biofuel because they are more cost-effective and leave less harmful environmental effects.
Recommended Citation
Baxter, Alaina, "The Use of Regular and Roasted Mushroom Coffee Grounds to Create Biofuel" (2025). South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 88.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2025/all/88
Location
PENNY 217
Start Date
4-5-2025 9:00 AM
Presentation Format
Oral and Written
Group Project
No
The Use of Regular and Roasted Mushroom Coffee Grounds to Create Biofuel
PENNY 217
This study aimed to see if La Republica mushroom coffee could be used to create biofuel. Regular mushroom coffee was predicted to yield the most oil because it was likely to have less oil lost from roasting. Roasted and regular mushroom coffee was measured at 50 g for each trial and distilled with steam distillation equipment. The water/oil mixture from each was added to distilled water and then separated through a separator. The regular coffee yielded around 8 mL of oil and the regular yielded around 4.2 mL of oil. The NaOH was used to titrate the oil (oil from roasted and regular mushroom coffee were titrated separately) with alcohol and phenolphthalein. The amount of NaOH needed to neutralize was measured and found that the regular mushroom coffee required less NaOH to neutralize the oil. Meaning that the regular mushroom coffee was less acidic so regular mushroom coffee would be best to use as a source of biofuel. However, mushroom coffee produced a relatively low yield (around 8 g oil per 150 g) of oil so it was not very cost-effective. Normally, the use of a t-test with the H0: μ=μ, Ha: μ ≠ μ, and α = 0.05 would be needed, however, due to human errors, it was unable to be run. Overall, renewable resources such as foods like coffee and other materials with high oil content should be used to create biofuel because they are more cost-effective and leave less harmful environmental effects.
