Economic validation and comparison of microbial tryptophan, erythritol and collagen production in an integrated sugarcane biorefinery

Abstract

Low sugar prices present a significant challenge to the global sugarcane industry, prompting the exploration of diversification strategies for expanding product portfolios. Techno-economic analyses and environmental sustainability assessments were carried out to evaluate the microbial production of tryptophan, erythritol, and collagen from A-molasses in a biorefinery annexed to an existing sugarcane mill. Tryptophan production exhibited the highest profitability, with a minimum selling price (MSP) at 59.7 % of its current market price, although the achievable production volumes of tryptophan from one sugar mill would oversupply the global market. Due to the larger market size of for collagen the achievable production capacity in the collagen scenario would avoid market saturation, reducing the risk of oversupply and rendering it more economically viable. In contrast, erythritol production was marginally not profitable, with an MSP exceeding the current market price by 1 %, primarily attributed to high operational costs. All scenarios demonstrated relatively low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (ranging from 9.1 to 16.5 kg CO2eq/kg product), with tryptophan production emerging as the most environmentally favourable option due to minimal chemical and freshwater usage. When compared with literature-reported data on ethanol and short-chain fructooligosaccharides (scFOS), only collagen and ethanol production were deemed viable, based on their favourable profitability and contribution to the market.