BRIN researcher turns spent coffee grounds into high-value oil

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Fawzan Sigma Aurum, a researcher at the Centre for Technology Research and Food Processing (PRTPP) of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), has developed research on utilising spent coffee grounds waste into oil with high market value. In a statement from Jakarta on Saturday, Fawzan explained that the oil from his research could be used in the cosmetics industry and as an ingredient in foods. ‘This research uses a modern foodomics approach that combines green extraction technology with advanced metabolomics and lipidomics analysis,’ he said. He noted that his study offers an integrative approach that combines green extraction techniques with foodomics profiling to obtain and characterise high-quality oil from coffee waste in a sustainable way. ‘The research results show that ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) using ethanol is the most efficient method because it yields high extraction with the best quality of bioactive chemical composition, including lipid content with potential to be high bioactive components, and low lipid oxidation levels,’ he stated. By contrast, he added, Soxhlet or basic fat and oil extraction techniques yield the highest yields but trigger greater lipid oxidation due to prolonged heating. The study also found compounds such as caffeoylquinic acids (CQAs), caffeic acid, feruloylquinic acid, and glutamic acid to have a positive correlation with the presence of non-oxidative lipids and other important bioactive compounds in the UAE and supercritical CO₂ extracts. Fawzan hopes this research can open up opportunities for utilising coffee waste into value-added products in the development of Indonesia’s food industry, nutraceutical ingredients, and sustainable cosmetic base materials.