Pre-feasibility analysis of a small-scale biorefinery in tropical countries

Tropical countries have an important production of fruits. Some of them are exotic fruits, which have important compounds that are used in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries. For the extraction of these important compounds it is necessary to carry out different operations such as extraction, concentration, purification, among others. These operations sometimes are unfeasible because its large production cost. However, when a biorefinery concept is applied it is possible to integrate all these operations in the same production scheme. This work presents a pre-feasibility analysis of a small-scale biorefinery from fruits by mean of a techno-economic and environmental assessment in order to obtain different value-added products. Three different scenarios were evaluated according to several levels of integration: i) biorefinery without mass and energy integration (scenario 1), ii) biorefinery with mass integration and without energy integration (scenario 2), and iii) biorefinery with both, mass and energy integration (scenario 3). Phenolic compounds, xylitol and succinic acid were obtained. Production cost of each one of the products is calculated as well as the share in the total production cost. On the other hand, eight environmental categories are evaluated using the waste reduction algorithm developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As a result, scenario 3 is the most attractive alternative due to its level of integration. It was found that small-scale biorefineries have a promising future in tropical countries, since not only for its wide biodiversity in fruits but also for the fruit rich in active compounds with high value-added.