Tea wastes as an alternative sustainable raw material for ethanol production

Abstract

Integrating sustainability in life became an urgent necessity. Currently, tea sectors play important role in adopting new technologies in order to reduce tea wastes. Collection of these wastes for production of ethanol will contribute to the improvement of life and the environment. Simple technique was proposed for saccharification of spent tea leaves either by cellulase or fermentation with baker’s yeast. Scanning electron microscope analysis showed certain modification for the morphology of both green and black tea leaves. Brunauer Emmett Teller analysis confirmed the increment in the surface area of both tea leaves. X- Ray Diffraction analysis proved the amorphous nature of their cellulose with little crystallinity. this nature eases their saccharification because cellulose is usually susceptible to degradation in its amorphous form. the percentage of produced ethanol was 74.4% from spent green tea leaves and 80.7% from spent black tea leaves after 24 h at mild temperature. the habit of drinking tea in egypt shed the light on a promising approach relies on the production of ethanol from tea wastes especially spent tea leaves.