Potential use of coffee grounds waste to produce dense/porous bi-layered red floor tiles

This work proposes an innovative application for coffee grounds waste to produce dense/porous bi-layered red floor tiles. The coffee grounds waste was tested as a pore-making material, acting as a replacement for red floor tile formulation by up to 25 wt% in the porous bottom layer. The bi-layered tile manufacturing route consisted of powder preparation by the dry process, pressing at 30 MPa, and firing at 1220 degrees C, and then tested, to determine their physical and mechanical properties and sintered microstructure. The test results indicated that the coffee grounds waste had a strong influence on the densification behavior, technological properties, and sintered microstructure. It was also found that the bi-layered red floor tiles produced have technical requirements in line with low absorption floor tile (Group BIb -ISO standard 13006) depending on the coffee grounds waste amount. Such new lightweight bi-layered red floor tiles may be a suitable candidate for ventilated facade applications.