Physicochemical characterization of coffee parchment of species Coffea arabica variety Castillo®

Abstract

Coffee parchment is one of the most abundant wastes from coffee processing in Colombia, representing 5.8% of dry weight of the berry. This waste has been scarcely characterized, then this work is a complete physicochemical characterization of coffee parchment of the species Coffea arabica variety Castillo®. The coffee parchment composition was studied, determining the fractions of cellulose (49 %), hemicellulose (21 %), lignin (28 %), and inorganics (3 %) presented. Also, FTIR analysis was made to explore the different functional groups of the constituent molecules and confirm their presence, likewise the thermal profile was determined to confirm the composition and explore the thermal stability of this waste. Crystallinity was determined by the Segal method using XRD. A morphological analysis by SEM and a granulometric analysis of this raw material is also presented. All these analyses are important for proposing alternative uses of coffee parchment, such as obtaining cellulose.