EXTRACTION OF FATTY ACIDS FROM SPENT COFFEE GROUNDS: DARK VERSUS MEDIUM ROAST**

Fatty acids are a useful resource and when recycled they can be used to make many products including skincare, biofuel, haircare, etc. Coffee grounds have been found to have an oil that contains fatty acids, which can be extracted and repurposed to make sustainable products. This research project was designed to determine the quantity of fatty acids that can be extracted from both medium and dark roast spent coffee grounds. The brand Community Coffee was used for both the medium and dark roast grounds as the cost was affordable for the common household and is frequently used by those families. The differences in the amounts of fatty acids extracted from dark and medium roast spent coffee grounds were determined and compared. Fatty acids were extracted from the spent coffee grounds then purified. A transesterification was performed to convert the fatty acids into esters and IR was used to characterize the resulting product. A look into using these fatty acids as a sustainable resource will be considered