On the afternoon of September 20th, 2024, Professor Li Jie from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, delivered an academic lecture titled World First Field Trial on Coffee Biochar Concrete: Performance, Challenges, and Limitations at the 8A613 conference room of the Modern Transportation Engineering Center. The lecture was held by the School of Urban Railway Transportation at Shanghai University of Engineering and Technology, and was chaired by Professor Wang Lei, Vice Dean of the School. At the beginning of the meeting, Professor Wang Lei solemnly introduced Professor Li Jie and warmly welcomed her on behalf of the School of Urban Rail Transit.
At the meeting, Professor Li Jie first introduced the source of the idea for the coffee grounds project. Australia produces 75 million kilograms of ground coffee waste every year, most of which is eventually landfilled. Every year, the world produces 10 billion kilograms of waste coffee, and the disposal of organic waste poses a challenge to the environment, emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, leading to climate change. The lecture evaluated the on-site performance of coffee biochar reinforced concrete under actual construction and environmental conditions, and discussed the challenges and limitations of converting coffee waste into clean, mainstream building materials. Professor Li's rich knowledge, unique approach to solving scientific problems, and vivid teaching style have greatly inspired the teachers and students present.
After the meeting, the teachers and students who participated in the academic lecture actively discussed the issue of adding other materials to concrete with Professor Li Jie. The atmosphere at the conference was lively, and the teachers and students present listened attentively to and studied the lecture content, further broadening their academic horizons.
Professor Li Jie is a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. Engaged in long-term research in fields such as unsaturated soil and building materials. His research on the characteristics of expansive soil and its interaction with foundations has been included in the Australian Ground Foundation Code AS287. So far, more than 170 international academic journal articles have been published. Since 2018, Professor Li has published over 90 papers in well-known SCI journals. His paper has received over 4580 citations (h-index=42) in the Elsevier SciVerse Scopus database, while according to Google Scholar statistics, it has received over 6800 citations (h-index=49).