Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Venkateswara Rao Kode and Katelyn Hamilton began researching coffee during the fall 2024 semester
photo by Angela Foster/UTC
Katelyn Hamilton describes making coffee as a “really big science experiment.”
“It’s what I tell everyone when I have this conversation about making coffee: You have to weigh everything. You have to measure the temperature of everything. You have ratios. Everything has to be on point to make a good cup of coffee,” she said.
Ms. Hamilton, a junior chemical engineering major at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, has transformed a barista job into the cornerstone of her academic and career goals.
During the fall 2024 semester, Ms.
Hamilton approached Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Venkateswara Rao Kode with an idea.
“She reached out to me and said, ‘Dr. Kode, I work in a coffee shop and we have a lot of spent coffee grounds that we don’t know what to do with. How can we effectively utilize this waste and help improve the ongoing research at UTC?’” he recalled.
“I said, ‘Bring it in. We can convert those spent coffee grounds into something useful.’”
Using a process called pyrolysis, Ms. Hamilton and Asst. Prof. Kode heated the coffee grounds in the absence of oxygen, converting them into biochar—a carbon-rich product with potential applications in 3D printing. Ms. Hamilton analyzed the biochar using a scanning electron microscope to study its topography.
“It was mind-boggling … drying the coffee, baking it six hours total, and then we undergo pyrolysis using a tube furnace,” Ms. Hamilton said. “You can see all the different coffee components—like the oils getting cooked away—but at the very end it’s just this black carbon. It’s like, ‘Wow, that’s literally carbon that we’re looking at.’ That was just really, really cool.”
Asst. Prof. Kode, who joined the UTC faculty at the start of the 2024-25 academic year, said Ms. Hamilton’s enthusiasm for the project has been inspiring.
“It’s absolutely amazing to have undergraduate students like Katelyn working in the lab and learning state-of-the-art research, especially with the ongoing environmental concerns around the world to bring down the carbon emissions and help improve the overall circular economy and sustainability,” Asst. Prof. Kode said. “Her project aligns with our efforts to promote chemical engineering with an environmental science focus.”
Ms. Hamilton’s work in the lab has also fueled her ambition to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering—with hopes of finding environmentally friendly ways to decaffeinate coffee and reduce greenhouse gas emissions during coffee roasting.
“Making coffee is one really big science experiment,” she said with a laugh. “I would definitely say that—with my newfound interest and passions—it has changed the way I see it.
“Working with coffee is something I’d love to do for the rest of my life.”