Our family’s interest in the coffee-making process began during the first COVID lockdown of 2020. We had a coffee machine and found that we were producing a considerable amount of waste between the six caffeine connoisseurs in our home.
We started researching what we could do with these waste coffee grounds. My wife Abeer and I have been working in the field of Medicinal and Organic Chemistry for over 10 years. Our home became a lab as we experimented with and researched coffee grounds over the lockdown.
We produced infused oil and body scrub from the first coffee raw materials we extracted. With that success, we quickly saw the potential to create other health-promoting products. Once we realised this, it became difficult to ignore the problem of the sector’s linear economy.
New Zealand imported over 74,000 tonnes of coffee in 2018 and in 2021, that increased by 9%. Once we’re done extracting the caffeine for our double shot, most of that waste product is sent to a landfill. It decomposes there and produces methane—a greenhouse gas that’s 25 times more potent than CO2—in the process, trapping heat in our atmosphere and contributing to global warming.
It is estimated that for every tonne of coffee grounds that decompose in landfills, 340m3 of methane is released into the environment.
Caffology was born to help create a circular economy in the coffee industry, making our coffee culture more sustainable for New Zealand and the planet as a whole. From this, the idea of establishing a coffee biorefinery emerged
“Our vision is to turn the coffee industry from a linear economy into a circular one that will be fuelled by the potential of upcycled coffee by-products.”
Our biorefinery upcycles used coffee grounds from our trusted partners in New Zealand.
We ensure the coffee grounds we collect are exclusively specialty Arabica variety and come from responsibly and sustainably sourced coffee suppliers.
We work with partners who have full traceability in their supply chain—from the farm the beans were grown on, to the cafe they were brewed at.
Today, our coffee biorefinery is turning coffee grounds into valuable ingredients for food and beverage producers, personal care products, health-promoting products, nutraceuticals. Beyond these, we’ve invented a versatile bioplastic and natural pigment that can be used in varied applications.
Meet our Team
Dr Wageeh Dabdawb
Co-founder
Recognized among the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University in 2022 and 2023 Dr Wageeh Dabdawb is the Co-founder of Caffology and has a PhD in the field of Organic Chemistry. Specialising in the areas of food and sustainable materials research and having previously led a prospering Nitrile Glove importing business, Glove OX, his research skills are complemented by a talent for entrepreneurship.
He has undertaken research in organic, natural, and synthetic chemistry throughout his career and published more than 70 articles in Web of Science databases. With a Google Scholar H-index ranking of 23, he has more than 2,000 citations of his articles.
As an academic with teaching and research responsibilities, he has also supervised numerous postgraduate students in their groundbreaking work.
Dr Abeer Dabdawb
Co-founder
Dr Abeer H is the Co-founder of Caffology and has a PhD in Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Her extensive scientific research in the fields of pharmaceutical chemistry, computational chemistry and medicinal chemistry has made a mark on the world.
She has a Google Scholar H-index ranking of 11, with more than 617 citations of her articles. In 2010, the University of Malaya awarded her a gold medal for outstanding achievement in bioscience and biotechnology at the Innovation and Creativity EXPO.
She’s undertaken research to investigate the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-cancer potential of plants and published more than 21 articles in Web of Science databases.
Hadi Dabdawb
IT and Operations
Hadi has a Bachelor’s degree in IT Systems Security and is currently working in the field of Cybersecurity. Beyond the tech skills, he previously advanced the membership and business goals of a Martial Arts gym as their Marketing Manager.
Still actively involved in numerous Martial Arts and kickboxing events, he’s the IT Manager at Caffology— ensuring the IT infrastructure and systems are leading-edge and sustainable.
Dr Lina Al-Ani
Research and Development / Advisor
Lina Al-Ani received the B.Sc. degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences from the University of Sharjah, UAE in 2012, the M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Sciences from the National University of Malaya, Malaysia in 2016 and the Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology from University of Malaya, Malaysia in 2020. She is certified as Medical Technologist from American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) in 2012. Currently, she works as a Visiting Scientist at Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), University of Malaya. Her current research interests include nanomedicine, toxicology, cancer research, drug delivery and antioxidants.
Scott Johnston
Business mentor and Advisor
Bio coming soon.