Technical and economic assessment of food waste valorization through a biorefinery chain

Francesca Demichelis, Silvia Fiore, Daniel Pleissner and Joachim Venus

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2018, vol. 94, issue C, 38-48

Abstract: This work presents the economic assessment of an integrated biorefinery process for sequential fermentative production of lactic acid and biogas from food waste. The integrated biorefinery process was compared to single processes for either lactic acid or biogas production. The economic assessment, considering catchment areas from 2000 to 1 million inhabitants, was based on data from real biorefinery plants and carried out using SuperPro Designer® 8.0. The consistency of the approach was evaluated through a set of composite indicators. The integrated biorefinery process was investigated for its economic feasibility of producing lactic acid and biogas, the impact of process scale as well as energy use. Outcomes revealed that an integrated biorefinery process contributes more to optimal use of energy and material flows than single processes. Profitability was confirmed for catchment areas larger than 20,000–50,000 inhabitants.

Keywords: Integrated biorefinery; Economic assessment; Energy balance; Food waste; Lactic acid; Biogas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:94:y:2018:i:c:p:38-48

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DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.05.064

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