Techno-Economic Analysis of Succinic Acid Production from Sugar-Rich Wastewater

Hyunjin Kim, Byoung-In Sang, Panagiotis Tsapekos, Irini Angelidaki and Merlin Alvarado-Morales ()
Additional contact information
Hyunjin Kim: Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangshimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
Byoung-In Sang: Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangshimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
Panagiotis Tsapekos: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
Irini Angelidaki: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
Merlin Alvarado-Morales: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Succinic acid (SA) is a valuable platform chemical that can be converted into biodegradable plastics, resins, solvents, etc. The emerging biological routes for SA production are gaining more attention because they exploit the natural abilities of bacteria to fixate carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). On the other hand, an inexpensive organic carbon source that can fulfill the energetic requirements of the microbial strain is also a significant challenge for industrial SA production. The current work presents a holistic techno-economic analysis of SA production using sugar-rich residual streams and biogas as raw materials. Simulation results showed that by establishing an integrated process, high SA production can be simultaneously achieved with biogas upgrading. The CO 2 provided from biogas and carbohydrates, which are provided from organic by-products is converted into two products: biomethane (CH 4 > 95%, a clean biofuel), and SA. The mass and energy balances and techno-economic indicators were simulated and calculated using SuperPro Designer ® . The total capital investment and the total production cost for a facility producing 1000 tSA/year were estimated to be EUR 5,211,000 and EUR 2,339,000 per year, respectively. The total revenue was calculated to be EUR 2,811,000 per year, while the revenue due to biomethane produced, namely, 198,150 Nm 3 corresponded to EUR 205,284 per year. The return on investment, payback period, and internal rate of return of the project were found to be 11.68%, 8.56 years, and 11.11%, respectively.

Keywords: succinic acid; carbon dioxide; biomethane; process simulation; economic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/7/3227/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/7/3227/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:7:p:3227-:d:1115085

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().