Development of tea leaves waste pellets as boiler fuel in food industry

The purpose of this partnership research with industry in 2020 is to develop technology for processing industrial tea leaf waste into pellets that can be used as biomass fuel for boilers. The research includes the characterization of the physico-chemical and thermal properties of tea leaf waste, development of technology for making pellets from tea leaf waste and testing the utilization of tea waste pellets as boiler fuel. The results showed that tea waste pellets can be used as boiler fuel quite well, so the industry is interested in developing a commercial scale of tea waste pellets production. This activity supports the achievement of the SDGs 9 in terms of on increasing industrial competitiveness and innovation and SDGs 15 that is maintain land ecosystem through utilization of agro-industry waste.