Effect of ethanol content on supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of caffeine from tea stalk and fiber wastes

This study presents the effect of ethanol content on supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of caffeine from tea plant wastes. Tea stalk and fiber wastes of Turkish tea plants that have no economical value were evaluated as raw material throughout the caffeine extraction experiments. These wastes were supplied from tea factory marked “Çaykur” in the east blacksea region. They were separately ground, sieved and dried at 105 °C temperature in an oven. Parameters affecting caffeine leaching from tea wastes were determined to be, ethanol flow rate, extraction time, extraction temperature, carbon dioxide flow rate, process pressure and particle size. The maximum yield of caffeine from tea stalk wastes and fiber wastes were 14.95 mg/g tea stalk and 18.92 mg/g tea fiber, respectively. When the supercritical extraction conditions used of ethanol as cosolvent have been compared with the conditions of used only carbon dioxide, approximately the same yield has been reached at 2 h extraction period instead of 7 h. Beside of saving of the time and the amount of carbon dioxide, the supercritical extraction yield with cosolvent increase had been recorded as 62.5% and 63.1%, respectively, in comparison with the chloroform extraction as conventional method of tea stalk and fiber wastes.

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