Boosting Sacha Inchi valorization through the biorefinery concept in Colombia: Techno-economic assessment

The conversion of agricultural products into a series of value-added compounds and energy vectors is a key economic driver in emerging industrial countries like Colombia. However, efforts are needed to utilize all biomass sources from the harvest and post-harvest stages. Sacha Inchi (SI) has been categorized as a potential option to promote the bioeconomy through the production of oil and flour. SI waste biomass (e.g., shells and press cake) is often discarded without valorization. This research applies the biorefinery concept to identify the best process setup for improving the techno-economic performance of an existing plant in Colombia. Four biorefinery scenarios were assessed, combining the production of antioxidants, biogas/electricity, and protein. Shells are a good source of antioxidants since shell extracts have a phenolic content of 17.24 mg GAE/g shell. Moreover, Sacha Inchi Oil Press Cake (SIOPC) can produce 29.05 kg of protein/100 kg and 0.52 Nm³ of biogas/kg, respectively. The most effective way to enhance an existing facility is by introducing an antioxidant production line and a bioenergy generation process. Both processing lines require a low capital investment (i.e., 2408,625 USD) with a high payback period (i.e., < 1 year). Antioxidant production is a potential option to be introduced in the existing plant, while protein extraction is not feasible from a techno-economic perspective. The results enabled the elucidation of the reliability and applicability of the biorefinery concept, as profitable processing lines were identified based on techno-economic indicators. Therefore, the biorefinery concept can be applied in any context and at any scale without the need to propose other biotechnological products unrelated to the economic activity of an existing plant (e.g., organic acids, alcohols, and biopolymers). Indeed, food and nutraceutical products align better with the growing use of waste biomass in existing medium-sized enterprises within the food sector.