Thermochemical treatment of spent coffee grounds via torrefaction: A statistical evidence of biochar properties similarity between inert and oxidative conditions

Abstract

This study used several statistical analyses to explore the impact of both inert and oxidative conditions on the characteristics of biochar derived from the torrefaction of spent coffee grounds (SCG). The study also considered variations in torrefaction temperature and residence time. Various fuel analyses were conducted, including high heating value (HHV), torrefaction index, proximate characteristics, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), hygroscopicity, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that the influence of both inert and oxidative conditions on HHV and mass yield was insignificant (p ≥ 0.05). Moreover, considering the same temperature and residence time, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) identified oxidative and inert conditions belonging to the same group or cluster. This finding indicated that neither atmospheric condition significantly affected the characteristics of the biochar measured in this research. Therefore, oxidative torrefaction offers significant advantages as it can produce biochar of comparable quality under inert conditions.