Abstract
In this study, process simulation of solid state fermentation processes is used to model and evaluate the economic viability of industrial-scale facilities that produce powdered astaxanthin (PAX) and an astaxanthin oil mixture (AXO) from wheat bran (WB) and olive pomace (OP) respectively. The proposed process flowsheets are analyzed and the results from the techno-economic and sensitivity analysis are presented. Simulation results indicate that the profitability of the two processes did not change much when capacity was increased beyond 10,000 kg per batch that was the base case for study. Through a sensitivity analysis, the effect of batch size, raw material cost, labor cost and product selling price on process economics was investigated. For the base case capacity, the total capital investment for the PAX and AXO plants were estimated at $22,308,000 and $13,489,000 respectively. The payback times of PAX and AXO processes were calculated as 4.92 and 7.19 years respectively. The capacities of 4799.91 kg/batch and 6815.15 kg/batch were calculated as the break-even points for PAX and AXO productions. The techno-economic analysis demonstrated that producing AX from agro-industrial wastes is a feasible and promising technology.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Rouf, S.A., Douglas, P.L., Moo-Young, M., Scharer, J.M.: Computer simulation for large scale bioprocess design. Biochem. Eng. J. 8, 229–234 (2001)
Petrides, D., Carmichael, D., Siletti, C., Koulouris, A.: Biopharmaceutical process optimization with simulation and scheduling tools. Bioengineering 1, 154–187 (2014)
Torres-Acosta, M.A., Ruiz-Ruiz, F., Aguilar-Yáñez, J.M., Benavides, J., Rito-Palomares, M.: Economic analysis of pilot-scale production of B-Phycoerythrin. Biotechnol. Prog. 32(6), 1472–1479 (2016)
Peters, M., Timmerhaus, K.: Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers. McGraw-Hill, Boston (1991)
Norton, J.: An introduction to sensitivity assessment of simulation models. Environ. Model. Softw. 69, 166–174 (2015)
López, S., Davies, D.R., Giráldez, F.J., Dhanoa, M.S., Dijkstra, J., France, J.: Assessment of nutritive value of cereal and legume straws based on chemical composition and in vitro digestibility. J. Sci. Food Agric. 85, 1550–1557 (2005)
Panesar, R., Kaur, S., Panesar, P.S.: Production of microbial pigments utilizing agro-industrial waste: a review. Curr. Opin. Food Sci. 1, 70–76 (2005)
Pandey, A., Soccol, C.R., Mitchell, D.: New developments in solid state fermentation: I-bioprocesses and products. Process Biochem. 35, 1153–1169 (2000)
Tekin, A.T., Dalgıç, A.C.: Biogas production from olive pomace. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 30, 301–313 (2000)
Meziane, S.: Drying kinetics of olive pomace in a fluidized bed dryer. Energy Convers. Manage. 52, 1644–1649 (2011)
Arvanitoyannis, I.S.: Waste Management for the Food Industries. Macmillan Company, Chennai (2010)
Galanakis, C.M.: Recovery of high added-value components from food wastes: conventional, emerging technologies and commercialized applications. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 26, 68–87 (2012)
Joshi, V.K., Attri, D., Bala, A., Bhushan, S.: Microbial pigments. Indian J. Biotechnol. 2, 362–369 (2003)
Nigam, P.S., Pandey, A. (eds): Biotechnology for Agro-Industrial Residues Utilization. Springer Science + Business Media B.V., New York (2009)
Gupta, C., Garg, A.P., Prakash, D., Goyal, S., Gupta, S.: Microbes as potential source of biocolours. Pharmacology 2, 1309–1318 (2011)
Dufossé, L., Galaup, P., Yaron, A., Arad, S.M., Blanc, P., Murthy, K.N.C., Ravishankar, G.A.: Microorganisms and microalgae as sources of pigments for food use: a scientific oddity or an industrial reality? Trends Food Sci. Technol. 16, 389–406 (2005)
Carle, R., Schweiggert, R.M.: Carotenoid deposition in plant and animal foods and its impact on bioavailability. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 57, 1807–1830 (2015)
Miki, W.: Biological functions and activities of animal carotenoids. Pure Appl. Chem. 63, 141–146 (1991)
Yamane, Y., Higashida, K., Nakashimada, Y., Kakizono, T., Nishio, N.: Influence of oxygen and glucose on primary metabolism and astaxanthin production by Phaffia rhodozyma main batch and fed-batch cultures: kinetic and stoichiometric analysis. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 63, 4471–4478 (1997)
Ambati, R.R., Phang, S.M., Ravi, S., Aswathanarayana, R.G.: Astaxanthin: sources, extraction, stability, biological and its commercial applications: a review. Mar. Drugs 12, 128–152 (2014)
Saini, R.K., Nile, S.H., Park, S.: Carotenoids from fruits and vegetables: chemistry, analysis, occurrence, bioavailability and biological activities. Food Res. Int. 76, 735–750 (2015)
Naguib, Y.M.A.: Antioxidant activities of astaxanthin and related carotenoids. J. Agric. Food Chem. 48, 1150–1154 (2000)
Ramírez, J., Gutierrez, H., Gschaedler, A.: Optimization of astaxanthin production by Phaffia rhodozyma through factorial design and response surface methodology. J. Biotechnol. 88, 259–268 (2001)
Visser, H., Ooyen, A.J.J., Verdoes, J.C.: Metabolic engineering of the astaxanthin-biosynthetic pathway of Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous. FEMS Yeast Res. 4, 221–231 (2003)
Higuera-Ciapara, I., Félix-Valenzuela, L., Goycoolea, F.M.: Astaxanthin: a review of its chemistry and applications. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 46, 185–196 (2006)
Albuquerque, C.L.C., Meireles, M.A.A.: Defatting of annatto seeds using supercritical carbon dioxide as a pretreatment for the production of bixin: experimental, modeling and economic evaluation of the process. J. Supercrit. Fluids 66, 86–95 (2012)
Osorio-Tobón, J.F., Carvalho, P.I.N., Rostagno, M.A., Meireles, M.A.A.: Process integration for turmeric products extraction using supercritical fluids and pressurized liquids: economic evaluation. Food Bioprod. Process. 98, 227–235 (2016)
Panis, G., Carreon, J.R.: Commercial astaxanthin production derived by green alga Haematococcus pluvialis: a microalgae process model and a techno-economic assessment all through production line. Algal Res. 18, 175–190 (2016)
Alcázar-Alay, S.C., Osorio-Tobón, J.F., Forster-Carneiro, T., Meireles, M.A.A.: Obtaining bixin from semi-defatted annatto seeds by a mechanical method and solvent extraction: process integration and economic evaluation. Food Res. Int. 99, 393–402 (2017)
García Prieto, C.V., Ramos, F.D., Estrada, V., Villar, M.A., Diaz, M.S.: Optimization of an integrated algae-based biorefinery for the production of biodiesel, astaxanthin and PHB. Energy 139, 1159–1172 (2017)
Parjikolaeia, B.R., Errico, M., El-Houri, R.B., Mantell, C., Fretté, X.C., Christensen, K.V.: Process design and economic evaluation of green extraction methods for recovery of astaxanthin from shrimp waste. Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 117, 73–82 (2017)
Zgheib, N., Saade, R., Khallouf, R., Takache, H.: Extraction of astaxanthin from microalgae: process design and economic feasibility study. Mater. Sci. Eng. 323, 012011, (2018) https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/323/1/012011
Dursun, D., Dalgıç, A.C.: Optimization of astaxanthin pigment bioprocessing by four different yeast species using wheat wastes. Biocatal. Agric. Biotechnol. 7, 1–6 (2016)
Eryılmaz, E.B., Dursun, D., Dalgıç, A.C.: Multiple optimization and statistical evaluation of astaxanthin production utilizing olive pomace. Biocatal. Agric. Biotechnol. 7, 224–227 (2016)
García-Tejeda, Y.V., Salinas-Moreno, Y., Martínez-Bustos, F.: Acetylation of normal and waxy maize starches as encapsulating agents for maize anthocyanins microencapsulation. Food Bioprod. Process. 94, 717–726 (2015)
Green, D.W., Perry, R.H.: Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook. McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., New York (2008)
Lam, K.F., Leung, C.C.J., Lei, H.M., Lin, C.S.K.: Economic feasibility of a pilot-scale fermentative succinic acid production from bakery wastes. Food Bioprod. Process. 92(3), 282–290 (2014)
Michailos, S., Parker, D., Webb, C.: A multicriteria comparison of utilizing sugar cane bagasse for methanol to gasoline and butanol production. Biomass Bioenergy 95, 436–448 (2016)
Cong, R.G.: An optimization model for renewable energy generation and its application in China: a perspective of maximum utilization. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 17, 94–103 (2013)
Balaman, S.Y., Scott, J., Matopoulos, A., Wright, D.G.: Incentivising bioenergy production: economic and environmental insights from a regional optimization methodology. Renew. Energ. 130, 867–880 (2019)
Jiang, Y., Werf, E.V.D., Ierland, E.C.V., Keesman, K.J.: The potential role of waste biomass in the future urban electricity system. Biomass Bioenergy 107, 182–190 (2017)
Khan, M.Y., Jain, P.K.: Management Accounting and Financial Analysis for CA Final Paperback. Tata McGraw Hill Pvd. Ltd., India (2006)
Cheng, C., Zhou, Y., Lin, M., Wei, P., Yang, S.T.: Polymalic acid fermentation by Aureobasidium pullulans for malic acid production from soybean hull and soy molasses: fermentation kinetics and economic analysis. Bioresour. Technol. 223, 166–174 (2017)
Han, W., Fang, J., Liu, Z., Tang, J.: Techno-economic evaluation of a combined bioprocess for fermentative hydrogen production from food waste. Bioresour. Technol. 202, 107–112 (2016)
Wei, P., Cheng, C.H.C., Lin, M.C., Zhou, Y., Yang, S.T.: Production of poly (malic acid) from sugarcane juice in fermentation by Aureobasidium pullulans: kinetics and process economics. Bioresour. Technol. 224, 581–589 (2017)
Vlysidis, A., Binns, M., Webb, C., Theodoropoulos, C.: A techno-economic analysis of biodiesel biorefineries: assessment of integrated designs for the co-production of fuels and chemicals. Energy 36(8), 4671–4683 (2011)
Misailidis, N., Campbell, G.M., Du, C., Sadhukhan, J., Mustafa, M., Mateos-Salvador, F., Weightman, R.M.: Evaluating the feasibility of commercial arabinoxylan production in the context of a wheat biorefinery principally producing ethanol. Part 2. Process simulation and economic analysis. Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 87(9), 1239–1250 (2009)
Marchetti, J.M.: Influence of economical variables on a supercritical biodiesel production process. Energ. Convers. Manage. 75, 658–663 (2013)
Wood, C., Rosentrater, K.A., Muthukumarappan, K.: Techno-economic modeling of a corn based ethanol plant in 2011/2012. Ind. Crops Prod. 56, 145–155 (2014)
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by Scientific Research Foundation of Gaziantep University (BAP M.F.14.13).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dursun, D., Koulouris, A. & Dalgıç, A.C. Process Simulation and Techno Economic Analysis of Astaxanthin Production from Agro-Industrial Wastes. Waste Biomass Valor 11, 943–954 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-018-0439-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-018-0439-y