Economic feasibility of a pilot-scale fermentative succinic acid production from bakery wastes

Abstract In this paper, the techno-economic study for a pilot-scale production of succinic acid from food waste via fermentation was evaluated. The pilot plant was based in Hong Kong and designed for converting 1 tonne/day of bakery waste into succinic acid. The mass and energy balance of the process was simulated by computer package SuperPro Designer ® . The total capital investment for the plant and the total production cost were US$ 1,118,243 and US$ 230,750/year respectively. Overall revenue generated from the process was US$ 374,041/year. The return on investment, payback period and internal rate of return of the project were 12.8%, 7.2 years and 15.3% respectively. The findings indicated that the fermentative succinic acid production from bakery waste was feasible. This is important for attracting investment and industrialization interest on the biorefinery process using domestic wastes as raw materials.

[1]  G. Bohlmann.  Process economic considerations for production of ethanol from biomass feedstocks , 2006 .

[2]  M. Roy,et al.  Techno-economic analysis of a membrane-integrated bioreactor system for production of lactic acid from sugarcane juice , 2012 .

[3]  C. Du,et al.  Novel resin-based vacuum distillation-crystallisation method for recovery of succinic acid crystals from fermentation broths , 2010 .

[4]  Colin Webb,et al.  Wheat‐based biorefining strategy for fermentative production and chemical transformations of succinic acid , 2012 .

[5]  Colin Webb,et al.  A techno-economic analysis of biodiesel biorefineries: Assessment of integrated designs for the co-production of fuels and chemicals , 2011 .

[6]  Gavin Towler,et al.  Chemical engineering design : principles, practice, and economics of plant and process design , 2008 .

[7]  Carol Sze Ki Lin,et al.  Utilisation of waste bread for fermentative succinic acid production , 2012 .

[8]  Hans Schnitzer,et al.  Sustainable solutions for solid waste management in Southeast Asian countries. , 2009, Waste management.

[9]  B. G. Hermann,et al.  Today’s and tomorrow’s bio-based bulk chemicals from white biotechnology , 2007, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology.

[10]  Ray Sinnott,et al.  Chemical Engineering Design , 2007 .

[11]  S. Y. Yang,et al.  Lactic acid fermentation of food waste for swine feed. , 2006, Bioresource technology.

[12]  Y. D. Hang.  Management and Utilization of Food Processing Wastes , 2006 .

[13]  Yang Lei,et al.  Municipal solid waste management in Beijing City. , 2009 .

[14]  Carlos A. Cardona,et al.  Design and analysis of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate production processes from crude glycerol , 2011 .

[15]  C. Du,et al.  A wheat biorefining strategy based on solid-state fermentation for fermentative production of succinic acid. , 2008, Bioresource technology.

[16]  Guido Zacchi,et al.  Techno-economic analysis of a two-step biological process producing hydrogen and methane. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[17]  J. Clark,et al.  A seawater-based biorefining strategy for fermentative production and chemical transformations of succinic acid , 2011 .

[18]  Guido Zacchi,et al.  Techno‐economic evaluation of a two‐step biological process for hydrogen production , 2010, Biotechnology progress.

[19]  Carol Sze Ki Lin,et al.  Valorisation of bakery waste for succinic acid production. , 2013 .

[20]  Colin Webb,et al.  Cereal-based biorefinery development: utilisation of wheat milling by-products for the production of succinic acid. , 2009, Journal of biotechnology.

[21]  Ruihong Zhang,et al.  Biogas production from co-digestion of dairy manure and food waste. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[22]  Yang Du,et al.  Wage increases, wage convergence, and the Lewis turning point in China , 2011 .

[23]  Eleni Iacovidou,et al.  Food waste co-digestion with sewage sludge--realising its potential in the UK. , 2012, Journal of environmental management.

[24]  A. Aden,et al.  An economic comparison of different fermentation configurations to convert corn stover to ethanol using Z. mobilis and Saccharomyces , 2009, Biotechnology progress.

[25]  Apostolis A. Koutinas,et al.  Food waste as a valuable resource for the production of chemicals, materials and fuels. Current situation and global perspective , 2013 .

[26]  Liang Yu,et al.  Simulation with Computational Fluid Dynamics of Succinic Acid and Co-Product Biorefinery Process , 2011 .

[27]  Xuebing Zhao,et al.  Biotechnological production of succinic acid: current state and perspectives , 2012 .

[28]  Colin Webb,et al.  Glycerol utilisation for the production of chemicals: conversion to succinic acid, a combined experimental and computational study. , 2011 .

[29]  Y. Yun,et al.  Treatment of food wastes using slurry-phase decomposition , 2000 .

[30]  Colin Webb,et al.  UTILISATION OF GLYCEROL TO PLATFORM CHEMICALS WITHIN THE BIOREFINERY CONCEPT: A CASE FOR SUCCINATE PRODUCTION , 2009 .

[31]  S. Barrington,et al.  Predicted growth of world urban food waste and methane production , 2006, Waste management & research : the journal of the International Solid Wastes and Public Cleansing Association, ISWA.

[32]  P. Chang,et al.  Techno-economic evaluation of biohydrogen production from wastewater and agricultural waste , 2012 .

[33]  F. Kargı,et al.  Bio-hydrogen production from waste materials , 2006 .

[34]  Klaus D. Timmerhaus,et al.  Plant design and economics for chemical engineers , 1958 .