TY - JOUR
T1 - Limits for sustainable biosurfactant production
T2 - Techno-economic and environmental assessment of a rhamnolipid production process
AU - Noll, Philipp
AU - Solarte-Toro, Juan C.
AU - Restrepo-Serna, Daissy L.
AU - Treinen, Chantal
AU - Poveda-Giraldo, Jhonny A.
AU - Henkel, Marius
AU - Cardona Alzate, Carlos A.
AU - Hausmann, Rudolf
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2024/2
Y1 - 2024/2
N2 - A techno-economic and environmental assessment of a di-rhamnolipid production process is presented. The process was designed based on patents describing industrial-scale glycolipid production. Glucose, glycerol, soybean oil, and stearic acid were tested as feedstocks. Maximum theoretical substrate-to-product yields were used. The simulation process was simulated using Aspen Plus v9.0. The techno-economic assessment was performed to elucidate the best feedstock. In addition, an environmental analysis was conducted using SimaPro v8.3. The highest productivity was calculated for stearic acid (3.57 kg di-rhamnolipid/t/d). The specific energy consumption and capital investment ranged from 1.8 MJ/kg to 6.1 MJ/kg and 1.8 to 2.8 M.USD, respectively. Stearic acid was identified as the most suitable raw material since the production cost was 12 USD/kg and the carbon footprint was 7.58 kgCO2-eq/kg. The environmental results elucidated that energy consumption as the most important hotspot. As conclusion, stearic acid is a promising option for producing di-rhamnolipids.
AB - A techno-economic and environmental assessment of a di-rhamnolipid production process is presented. The process was designed based on patents describing industrial-scale glycolipid production. Glucose, glycerol, soybean oil, and stearic acid were tested as feedstocks. Maximum theoretical substrate-to-product yields were used. The simulation process was simulated using Aspen Plus v9.0. The techno-economic assessment was performed to elucidate the best feedstock. In addition, an environmental analysis was conducted using SimaPro v8.3. The highest productivity was calculated for stearic acid (3.57 kg di-rhamnolipid/t/d). The specific energy consumption and capital investment ranged from 1.8 MJ/kg to 6.1 MJ/kg and 1.8 to 2.8 M.USD, respectively. Stearic acid was identified as the most suitable raw material since the production cost was 12 USD/kg and the carbon footprint was 7.58 kgCO2-eq/kg. The environmental results elucidated that energy consumption as the most important hotspot. As conclusion, stearic acid is a promising option for producing di-rhamnolipids.
KW - Bioeconomy
KW - Biosurfactant
KW - Carbon footprint
KW - Economic assessment
KW - Life cycle assessment
KW - Rhamnolipids
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183948415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biteb.2024.101767
DO - 10.1016/j.biteb.2024.101767
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85183948415
SN - 2589-014X
VL - 25
JO - Bioresource Technology Reports
JF - Bioresource Technology Reports
M1 - 101767
ER -
