Techno-economic assessment of scale-up of bio-flocculant extraction and production by using okra as biomass feedstock

Abstract

This paper reports a techno-economic assessment for industrial scale bio-flocculant production with okra as biomass feedstock. The sludge dewatering ability of the bio-flocculant was evaluated prior to economic analysis. Several optimisation strategies were investigated in order to lower the bio-flocculant production cost. The results showed that continuous mode microwave extraction was more economically beneficial than conventional extraction in batch and continuous modes. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the production cost was significantly affected by annual production and extract yield, and moderately influenced by raw material price. The optimised scheme for bio-flocculant production was continuous mode microwave extraction at 90˚C, a residence time of 10 minutes, a water loading of 3.5 w/w and production rate of 220 tonnes per year. The economic assessment showed that the gross margin was positive, return on investment was in the expected range of 20 to 30% and payback time was within 5 years.

Techno-economic analysis of catechin mix manufacture from Camellia sinensis leaves using green extraction technology

“…Microwave heating has been shown to lead to wider process engineering benefits when carried out at large scale, such as a reduction in equipment size and simplification of processing steps when compared to conventional methods, which results in further economic benefits [29].…”

“…[15]. The values were used with the assumption that the industrial plant will have identical performance with laboratory scale if the same operating conditions are used for constructing an industrial plant [29] and these are presented in Table 1. The operation data considered for the extraction operation were extraction temperature, extraction time, solvent to feed ratio and extract yield while for the separation and purification unit were resin binding capacity, loading, eluant and wash flowrates.…”

“…The pulverized CSL, modeled to contain EC, EGC, ECG, EGCG, fiber and other components was transferred along with DES-4 into a microwave extractor P-3/R-101. For microwave extraction, a magnetron microwave generator that generates electromagnetic energy is attached to achieve fast vessel heating with homogeneous microwave distribution throughout the vessel [29]. The electromagnetic energy delivered by a transmission line to microwave extractor was then used to heat the content of the extractor to 66 o C and extraction of bioactive from CSL continued for 8 min at this temperature.…”

“…The batch extraction with microwave technology is restricted to smaller scales due to the limitation of maximum power (100 kW) that can be generated by currently available industrial microwave generator [29]. For this reason, three other batch sizes (0.063, 1.522 and 3.30 kg CM) that match the presently available industrial extractors in terms of size and microwave power requirements were selected.…”

Simulación del proceso de producción de maltina a partir de sorgo rojo CIAP R-132 a escala piloto

“…Entre los múltiples simuladores existentes en la actualidad, el SuperPro Designer® es uno de los más relevantes para la industria de procesos químicos, ya que permite simular mediante un ordenador, distintos procesos y operaciones a diversas escalas de producción. Este simulador ha sido empleado fundamentalmente para la realización de balances de masa, estudios de factibilidad, análisis económicos de variantes, así también como el diseño y evaluación conceptual de procesos y sistemas químicos industriales [7] [8] [9] [10]. Hasta la fecha, el sorgo rojo variedad CIAP R-132 ha sido utilizado para evaluar el proceso de molienda en húmedo para la extracción del almidón contenido en los granos [4]; la producción de jarabes dextrinizados mediante hidrólisis enzimática del almidón aplicando la enzima α-amilasa [11]; como componente adjunto mezclado con cebada para la obtención de cerveza y malta a escala piloto (50 L) [2] y como única materia prima para la obtención de cerveza a escala de laboratorio [12].…”