Valorization of coffee silverskin industrial waste by pyrolysis: From optimization of bio-oil production to chemical characterization by GC × GC/qMS

Abstract

Coffee bean tegument (silverskin) is a by-product derived from the coffee roasting process. This residue has been discarded, which constitutes a serious environmental problem. The depletion of oil reserves and environmental issues promoted by the combustion of fossil fuels has generated interest in the use of biomass to obtain fuel and chemicals products. The liquid product obtained by biomass pyrolysis is commonly called bio-oil. Bio-oil is a complex mixture of compounds, and its detailed chemical characterization is necessary to prospect its potential uses. Therefore, this study optimized the final temperature of pyrolysis and N2 flow rate parameters for the pyrolysis of silverskin in a fixed bed reactor, by using a central composite design and response surface. The bio-oil chemical composition was evaluated by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to rapid-scanning quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC × GC/qMS), combined with the use of standards and linear temperature-programmed retention indices (LTPRI). The optimal values ​​calculated were 560 °C for the final pyrolysis temperature and 49 mL min−1 for the N2 flow rate. The organic phase yield was 15.2% under these conditions. At the optimal conditions, 228 compounds were identified (90.1% of the sample chromatographic volume) in the organic phase. The major chemical class, in terms of volume percentage, were the phenols (26.70%), followed by nitrogen compounds (18.51%). In addition, it is worth mentioning the high representability of the saturated hydrocarbons (8.28%), unsaturated aliphatic (6.69%), and aromatics (7.77%), which together account for 22.74% of the sample chromatographic volume. These results showed that the silverskin bio-oil may have the potential use as a source of chemical inputs.