Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID PR_2024_Esteves

Continuation: Biocomposites for Caffeine Detection and Removal in Aquatic Ecosystems

Institute: Puerto Rico
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-09-01 End Date: 2025-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $22,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $23,922

Principal Investigators: Magda Latorre Esteves, Oscar Marcelo Suárez, Matías Cafaro

Project Summary: Caffeine is an emerging contaminant (EC) and is a pharmaceutically active compound (PhAC) pollutant. Although caffeine accumulation can be attributed to the high global consumption of caffeinated food, beverages, and medicines, it is also due to the effects of coffee processing. In Puerto Rico, coffee has been a staple crop for over 300 years. In recent years, there has been a revival in the coffee industry in Puerto Rico, mainly in specialty coffee production. This opens the need to a) develop tools that can quickly quantify caffeine concentration near such sites, b) produce biopolymeric membranes that can remove this contaminant, and c) test the impact of caffeine, caffeine quantifiers and caffeine removers via membranes on aquatic species. We are currently determining optimal processing parameters for materials regarding the detection of caffeine in contaminated waters, as proposed for the project in FY 2023-2024. Biopolymers, such as chitosan,cellulose, and lignin, have been used in recent years due to their potential applications in various fields. Detection and removal of organic and inorganic contaminants is one of the various applications these biopolymers provide. Due to its cost-effectivity, biocompatibility, low toxicity, and being a renewable source, chitosan,cellulose and lignin are the perfect candidates for applications in aquatic ecosystems. Detection and removal of caffeine through reverse osmosis from various sources such as tea and coffee has been reported in various recent studies. We have developed chitosan and chitosan: coffee silver skin (20:80) bio composites with high porosity, which is a desirable characteristic in applications that require absorption of liquids and contaminants. Titanium dioxide nanocomposite materials, like chitosan and cellulose, have biocompatible properties. Photocatalytic degradation of caffeine using anatase titanium dioxide nanocomposites has been recently reported. An aggregation of TiO2 into the biopolymeric (ligning, cellulose, and chitosan) matrices is expected to provide a higher performance in caffeine removal and/or degradation. As a model aquatic species, we will continue using the model freshwater organism known as zebrafish (Danio rerio), which has been shown to be sensitive to caffeine. Zebrafish embryos were collected and exposed to varying concentrations of caffeine, and we found that caffeine has considerable effects on zebrafish embryo hatching and mortality in concentrations under 5 ppm of caffeine. The biopolymeric membranes produced in this work will also be placed in embryo water to ensure they present no toxicity to the animals.