Food Waste-derived 3D Printing Material

The novel technology offers a promising solution for food waste management by upcycling major commercial & industrial food waste into sustainable composite materials for 3D printing. 

Food by-products, which are abundantly generated worldwide by food processing plants, restaurants, and households, can be effectively transformed into a sustainable composite, serving as filling agents for various purposes in 3D printing. The technology utilizes spent coffee grounds (SCG) or spent tea leaves (STL) are used to devise new recipes of 3D printing inks. Compared with the current commercial 3D printing inks that are produced from 100% polylactic acid (PLA), food waste content could contribute up to 50wt% of the 3D printing composite materials which possesses around 36% lower carbon footprint.

The materials are suitable for most fused deposition modelling (FDM) type 3D printers in existing materials with a tensile strength of 10 - 40 MPa and excellent ductility of up to 33%, making them fit for a wide range of indoor furnishings such as modular furniture and display items and shock-absorbing designs etc. The production of 3D printing materials is also chemical-free and mainly relies on mechanical processing, thus avoiding the need of downstream wastewater treatment and making it easily adaptable for field-scale operation. 

The solution has a model of circular economy, bridging the gap between the producer of food waste (bioresources) and the utility/service provider to initiate a local ecosystem of resource circulation.