VALORIZATION OF ROASTED HAZELNUT CUTICLES SUPPORTED BY LABORATORY TECHNIQUES

this paper reports the experimental results of an on-going project running at lab-scale and aimed at the valorization of roasted hazelnut cuticles through both chemical (i.e., solvent extraction) and thermochemical treatment (i.e., torrefaction) routes. In particular, the potential of using water as a green solvent for the extraction of bioactive compounds (i.e., substances of chemical-food-pharmaceutical interest, such as the polyphenols) contained in residues originated by industrial processing of hazelnuts has been investigated, applying the conventional laboratory Soxhlet extraction procedure. A subsequent valorization stage has been explored for the spent post-extraction residues versus the “as collected” ones; they lend themselves to become “renewable” solid fuels thanks to torrefaction, which is a “mild” thermochemical conversion process. The obtained results are first presented in terms of theoretical yields of the bioactive compounds of interest with respect to the original mass of hazelnut residue; in addition, the findings on torrefaction are discussed in terms of performance indexes with respect to the torrefied fuel and quantitatively expressed as correlations as a function of temperature.