Process Simulation and Techno Economic Analysis of Astaxanthin Production from Agro-Industrial Wastes

In this study, process simulation of solid state fermentation processes is used to model and evaluate the economic viability of industrial-scale facilities that produce powdered astaxanthin (PAX) and an astaxanthin oil mixture (AXO) from wheat bran (WB) and olive pomace (OP) respectively. The proposed process flowsheets are analyzed and the results from the techno-economic and sensitivity analysis are presented. Simulation results indicate that the profitability of the two processes did not change much when capacity was increased beyond 10,000 kg per batch that was the base case for study. Through a sensitivity analysis, the effect of batch size, raw material cost, labor cost and product selling price on process economics was investigated. For the base case capacity, the total capital investment for the PAX and AXO plants were estimated at $22,308,000 and $13,489,000 respectively. The payback times of PAX and AXO processes were calculated as 4.92 and 7.19 years respectively. The capacities of 4799.91 kg/batch and 6815.15 kg/batch were calculated as the break-even points for PAX and AXO productions. The techno-economic analysis demonstrated that producing AX from agro-industrial wastes is a feasible and promising technology.