Economic and environmental analysis of producing soy protein-cellulose-based bionanocomposite fruit coating

Food waste especially for perishable fruit is highly problematic for a global society that continues to grow in population. Coating fruit is one such approach to minimize waste. To assess economic and environmental risks and opportunities of a novel fruit -coating solution before industrial deployment is pursued, an industrial -scale process model was developed based on an optimized experimental process to produce soy protein isolatecellulose nanocrystal bionanocomposite coating for perishable fruits (avocado for this study). Technoeconomic analysis and life cycle assessment were carried out to understand the financial viability and the environmental performance of the soy protein isolate -cellulose nanocrystal fruit coating solution production process at the commercial scale. The estimated minimum selling price of soy protein isolate -cellulose nanocrystal fruit coating solution was $0.59/kg, which is competitive with existing fruit coating solutions (e.g., solvent -based wax). The minimum cost of applying a coating to avocado fruit was approximately $0.01/fruit. A sensitivity analysis indicated that the estimated economic outcomes were still favorable, even when raw material costs, tax rate, and project's lifetime were varied by +/- 50%, with soy protein isolate costs having the largest impact on the estimated measures of profitability. The cradle -to -gate life cycle assessment results indicated that an industrialscale soy protein isolate -cellulose nanocrystal fruit coating solution production process estimates a carbon footprint of 0.33 kg CO2 eq/kg of solution produced which is higher than the water -based wax solution and lower than the solvent -based wax solution.