Economic Assessment of Supercritical CO2 Extraction of Waxes as Part of a Maize Stover Biorefinery

Abstract

To date limited work has focused on assessing the economic viability of scCO2 extraction to obtain waxes as part of a biorefinery. This work estimates the economic costs for wax extraction from maize stover. The cost of manufacture (COM) for maize stover wax extraction was found to be €88.89 per kg of wax, with the fixed capital investment (FCI) and utility costs (CUT) contributing significantly to the COM. However, this value is based solely on scCO2 extraction of waxes and does not take into account the downstream processing of the biomass following extraction. The cost of extracting wax from maize stover can be reduced by utilizing pelletized leaves and combusting the residual biomass to generate electricity. This would lead to an overall cost of €10.87 per kg of wax (based on 27% combustion efficiency for electricity generation) and €4.56 per kg of wax (based on 43% combustion efficiency for electricity generation). A sensitivity analysis study showed that utility costs (cost of electricity) had the greatest effect on the COM.

Optimisation and economic evaluation of the supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of waxes from waste date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) leaves

“…In addition, scCO 2 provides solvent free extracts making it an ideal extraction technique for industries including pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic sectors, where eliminating trace solvent contamination is crucial (Mendes et al, 2003;Chemat et al, 2012). Furthermore, scCO 2 treatment has been shown to be an M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT effective first step in an integrated biorefinery improving the downstream processing of the biomass (Attard et al, 2015c;Attard et al, 2016b).…”

Development of a tomato pomace biorefinery based on a CO2-supercritical extraction process for the production of a high value lycopene product, bioenergy and digestate

“…Already applied within the food industry, CO 2 supercritical technology (SFE-CO 2 ) is an alternative extraction method that avoids the solvent organic employment to develop greener manufacturers and healthier extract solvent free (Zunik et al, 2012;2015;Kehili et al, 2017), in which TP seed oil acts as CO 2 co-solvent and becomes the lyc solubilisation medium. Lyc health benefits are improved during SFE-CO 2 since the trans form is partially transformed into cis, that has higher oil solubility and bioavailability (Müller et al, 2011;Richelle et al, 2012).…”

Pre-treatment and extraction techniques for recovery of added value compounds from wastes throughout the agri-food chain

“…177,194 Recent work has demonstrated the economic viability of scCO 2 extraction of corn stover wax, with the lowest cost of production found to be €4.56 per kg of wax. 178 Data obtained from the global wax reports in 2015 indicate that the price of the non-petroleum waxes, beeswax, carnauba wax and candelilla wax, in the US were €7.66 per kg of wax, €7.15 per kg of wax and €2.68 per kg of wax, respectively; while the average price of all non-petroleum waxes imported in the US was found to be €5.75 per kg of wax. Therefore, the supercritically extracted waxes from maize stover fall within this range.…”

“…170 In particular, supercritical extraction of epicuticular waxes from wheat straw, flax straw, corn stover and sugarcane agricultural residues has been investigated. [172][173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182] These studies looked into the optimised extraction and characterisation of hydrophobic components constituting the waxes. Typical groups of hydrophobic compounds found in the scCO 2 extracts from these biomass residues include long-chain hydrocarbons, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, n-policosanols, fatty aldehydes, wax esters, sterols, steroid ketones and triterpenoids.…”

“…Typical groups of hydrophobic compounds found in the scCO 2 extracts from these biomass residues include long-chain hydrocarbons, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, n-policosanols, fatty aldehydes, wax esters, sterols, steroid ketones and triterpenoids. [173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182] These molecules can be utilised in a wide array of applications including cosmetics, cleaning products, flavour and fragrance, insecticides, degreasers, lubricants, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. [183][184][185][186][187][188][189][190][191][192][193] ScCO 2 wax fractions from corn stover were found to be effective as anti-foaming agents in detergent formulations, which could be a potential replacement for the current non-renewable anti-foams that are widely known to have a number of negative impacts, such as eutrophication ( phosphates), carcinogenic products, and persistence in the environment (silicates).…”