TY - JOUR
T1 - Food Waste Digestate-Based Biorefinery Approach for Rhamnolipids Production: A Techno-Economic Analysis
AU - Patria, Raffel Dharma
AU - Wong, Jonathan W. C.
AU - Johnravindar, Davidraj
AU - Uisan, Kristiadi
AU - Kumar, Rajat
AU - Kaur, Guneet
N1 - Funding information:
The research was funded by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), Hong Kong (Grant No. ITS/176/18).
Publisher copyright:
© 2021 by the authors
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - The present work evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of a rhamnolipids production process that utilizes digestate from anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste. Technical feasibility, profitability and extent of investment risks between fermenter scale and its operating strategy for rhamnolipids production was investigated in the present study. Three scenarios were generated and compared: production using a single large fermenter (Scenario I), using two small fermenters operated alternately (Scenario II) or simultaneously (Scenario III). It was found that all the scenarios were economically feasible, and Scenario III was the most profitable since it allowed the most optimum fermenter operation with utilization of multiple small-scale equipment to reduce the downtime of each equipment and increase the production capacity and overall productivity. It had the highest net present value, internal rate of return and shortest payback time at a discount rate of 7%. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to indicate how the variation in factors such as feedstock (digestate) cost, rhamnolipids selling price, extractant recyclability and process capacity influenced the process economics. The work provides important insights on techno-economic performance of a food waste digestate valorization process which would be useful to guide its sustainable scale-up.
AB - The present work evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of a rhamnolipids production process that utilizes digestate from anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste. Technical feasibility, profitability and extent of investment risks between fermenter scale and its operating strategy for rhamnolipids production was investigated in the present study. Three scenarios were generated and compared: production using a single large fermenter (Scenario I), using two small fermenters operated alternately (Scenario II) or simultaneously (Scenario III). It was found that all the scenarios were economically feasible, and Scenario III was the most profitable since it allowed the most optimum fermenter operation with utilization of multiple small-scale equipment to reduce the downtime of each equipment and increase the production capacity and overall productivity. It had the highest net present value, internal rate of return and shortest payback time at a discount rate of 7%. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to indicate how the variation in factors such as feedstock (digestate) cost, rhamnolipids selling price, extractant recyclability and process capacity influenced the process economics. The work provides important insights on techno-economic performance of a food waste digestate valorization process which would be useful to guide its sustainable scale-up.
KW - rhamnolipids
KW - food waste
KW - anerobic digestate
KW - techno-economic assessment
KW - sensitivity analysis
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4079/2/2
U2 - 10.3390/suschem2020014
DO - 10.3390/suschem2020014
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2673-4079
VL - 2
SP - 237
EP - 253
JO - Sustainable Chemistry
JF - Sustainable Chemistry
IS - 2
ER -