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Feasibility of Coffee & Tea residues as Natural Fertilizers

by

Lee Si Yuan, Ng Zhi Liang Shaun and Sim Hong Kai Amos

1
NUS High School of Mathematics and Science

Teacher Advisors
Mark Ross Dewey
1
NUS High School of Mathematics and Science
30 December 2014

Statement of contribution:

All student authors contributed in part to the project. As the group leader, Lee Si Yuan helped
source for experimental procedures and arrange group meetings. He also did the experimental
component of the calcium carbonate and organic content tests, and collated all data for the project.
The procedures section of the report was also written by him. Shaun Ng helped set up much of the
necessary apparatus during experiments, and did the experimental component of the phosphorous
test using UV-Vis spectrophotometry. He also helped water the soil samples every 10 days. Amos
Sim wrote the bulk of the report, and helped do up the poster. His review of our experimental
procedures proved invaluable in avoidance of certain experimental errors.

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Lee Si Yuan, Ng Zhi Liang Shaun, Sim Hong Kai Amos
Feasibility of Coffee & Tea residues as Natural Fertilizers

Feasibility of Coffee & Tea Residues as Natural Fertilizers

Lee Si Yuan, Ng Zhi Liang Shaun and Sim Hong Kai Amos

Abstract

This project examined the potential of coffee powder and tea leaf residues as natural fertilizers, to
see industrial application. Fertilizer of each kind was mixed in soils in 10% composition and 20%
composition. A control group was also present. The fertilizers were allowed to decompose over a
duration of 8 weeks, thereafter various tests were conducted on soil samples to examine the amount
of essential nutrient within the soils. The tests tested for phosphorous, organic content and calcium
carbonate. Both fertilizer types, especially the coffee powder, produced a dramatic increase in the
organic content of soil, from ~2% organic content in the control soil sample in week 0 to >60%
organic content in soil with 20% coffee powder composition, after an 8 – week decomposition
period. Allowing more time for these natural fertilizers to decompose has also increased their
effectiveness. Unfortunately the effect of the fertilizers on phosphorous and calcium carbonate
levels was quite insignificant in comparison. While potential was seen in the fertilizers, further
research into other potential fertilizers might be necessary to obtain a natural fertilizer of industrial
standard.

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Lee Si Yuan, Ng Zhi Liang Shaun, Sim Hong Kai Amos
Feasibility of Coffee & Tea residues as Natural Fertilizers

Introduction and Background


Agriculture is poised to be a growing industry given the increasing demands of food by the world
population. However one of the bigger costs of agriculture, both to the environment as well as
monetary cost would be fertilizers. Conventional fertilizers are expensive and may damage the
environment during its use by running off into waters and affecting/poisoning the local ecosystem.
Due to this, our team has attempted to concentrate efforts on finding alternative fertilizers that are
less harmful and more cost efficient than conventional fertilizers. Coffee powder and tea leaves
have been known to have organic compounds that may allow them to function as fertilizers, this
compounded with the fact that they will decompose gives rise to a possibility of them being cheap
and effective fertilizers. To this end, our team is reporting our findings of coffee powder and tea
leaf fertilizers’ nutrient content within soil over a decomposition period of 8 weeks. The nutrients
of interest include organic content, phosphorous content and calcium carbonate content.
Purpose of Research
An estimated 4.5 million tonnes of tea and 7 million tonnes of coffee are being produced annually
as of the year 2014. These beverages are present across cultural borders, and are an integral part
of the economy of some developing countries. Given its worldwide prevalence, it is hence a pity
that usage of these crops in green technology remains a relatively under-exploited resource. Given
the detrimental impacts that artificial fertilizers have on the environment, not to mention the
financial burden they present to farmers in developing countries, we have decided to investigate
the feasibility of coffee and tea residue as natural fertilizers. This is but a small percentage of the
plant biomass that is commonly just discarded, but it would be good for a start.
Hypothesis
1. A significant increase can be observed for organic content, in soils where the coffee or tea
residues have been added.
2. Small increases can be observed for phosphorous content, in soils where coffee or tea
residues have been added.
3. Insignificant changes in calcium carbonate content will be observed.

Experimental Procedures
We first measured 300 grams of soil into each of the 10 disposable plastic containers, and labelled
them A0, AC, ACC, AT, ATT, B0, BC, BCC, BT and BTT. The letter C or T represents those that
will have coffee or tea residue added respectively, with single-letters and double-letters accounting
for 10% and 20% fertilizer composition of the soil by mass respectively. We took 30 grams of soil
directly from the containers AC, AT, BC and BT as our samples, and took 60 grams of soil from
the rest. We added 30 grams of coffee residue to AC and BC, 30 grams of tea residue to AT and
BT, 60 grams of coffee residue to ACC and BCC, 60 grams of tea residue to ATT and BTT, and
left A0 and B0 untouched. 100 ml of water was then poured into each container, and this amount
of water will be added once every 10 days to facilitate decomposition taking place.

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Lee Si Yuan, Ng Zhi Liang Shaun, Sim Hong Kai Amos
Feasibility of Coffee & Tea residues as Natural Fertilizers

Aside from the first day, samples were also taken after 2 weeks and after 8 weeks. 60 grams of
samples were collected from each container, and placed in the oven for a day to dry. Tests for
calcium carbonate, organic and phosphorous content were then conducted.
Results and Discussion
With reference to the graphs in the Appendix, the best fit line was fitted wherever applicable. The
exceptions include ‘Increasing concentration of tea leaves in week 2 vs CaCO3 content’ where a
best fit curve was employed as well as ‘Increasing concentration of tea leaves in week 8 vs CaCO3
content’ where a best fit line would be inappropriate. The bar graph was employed for phosphorous
concentrations as the data was independent from each other. Graphs with less than 3 data points
were omitted as their best fit line has no meaning due to r2 value of 1.
As expected, the control (M0) against time graphs proved to have very weak correlations. CaCO3
content had no clear trend (r2 value of 0.0015), organic content predictably decreased (from 2.7%
in week 0 to 1.5% in week 8) over time and phosphorous concentration had no correlation to time.
Graphs of phosphorous concentrations have a positive trend in general with the exception of 10%
composition coffee powder where phosphorous concentration decreased as well as an interesting
case where 20% composition coffee powder showed a decrease in phosphorous concentration after
week 2. It is not sure what causes this trend in coffee powder at the moment, but further research
could be done in the future to allow better selection of fertilizers in the future.
Graphs of organic content show a clear increase in organic content, the increase also scales with
an increase in amount fertilizer. Due to the closeness of the r2 values to one, we could say that the
relation is roughly linear; making it easy to determine the necessary amount of fertilizer in future
should the farming be scaled upwards or downwards.
Graphs of CaCO3 show an increasing trend when fertilizer is employed, however due to lack of
data points, graphs of 10% composition tea leaves, 20% composition tea leaves and 20%
composition coffee powder cannot be said to be linear, as mentioned above the best fit lines do not
hold any value.
Conclusion and Future Directions
In all, we conclude that addition of coffee and tea residues to soil are highly effective in increasing
organic content. The effectiveness increased with decomposition time, as well as amount of
fertilizer added. For CaCO3, both our fertilizers documented a slight positive impact in week 2,
though inherent experimental errors rendered us unable to verify this in week 8. Unfortunately,
our fertilizers did not seem to have much impact on phosphorous content. While we feel that our
fertilizers do have the potential for industrial applications, additional research is in order to refine
our search for a more suitable natural fertilizer. Further tests can be performed on other nutrients
in soil, for instance nitrate and potassium content, which we were unable to analyze due to
instrumental constraints. We encourage further endeavors into investigating feasibility of more
biodegradable plant food waste as fertilizers. For instance, sugar cane fibers and coconut husks
could be potential candidates.

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