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Natural pigment indigoidine production: process design, simulation, and techno-economic assessment

  • Jhared Axel Mora-Jiménez , Vanessa Andreina Alvarez-Rodriguez , Sebastián Cisneros-Hernández , Carolina Ramírez-Martínez and Alberto Ordaz EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: June 11, 2024
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Chemical Product and Process Modeling
From the journal Chemical Product and Process Modeling Volume 19 Issue 4

Abstract

Natural pigment production represents an innovative and sustainable alternative to synthetic pigments. However, its industrial production to meet the global demand for pigments poses technological and economic challenges. In this work, a process design and simulation were conducted using SuperPro Designer to produce a blue natural pigment known as indigoidine, which is in high demand as a natural alternative to synthetic blue dyes in industries. The process design included upstream, bioreaction, and downstream processing to produce 113 tons per year of dry indigoidine. For the conception and design of the bioprocess, experimental data reported in the literature, such as kinetic and stoichiometric parameters, culture media, feeding strategy, and volumetric power input, were taken into account. The economic and profitability indicators of four scenarios were assessed based on a base scenario, which involved changing the typical stirred tank reactor to an airlift reactor, decreasing indigoidine recovery, and reducing biomass production. It was estimated that the use of an airlift reactor significantly improves the profitability of the bioprocess, while a 50 % decrease in biomass concentration (less than 40 g/L) significantly affected the profitability of the process. Finally, an equilibrium production point of around 56 tons per year was determined to balance total revenues with operational costs. This is the first work that offers valuable insights into the scaling-up of natural pigment indigoidine production using bacteria.

Keywords: indigoidine; natural pigment; minimum profitable productivity; SuperPro; process simulation
Corresponding author: Alberto Ordaz, Departamento de Bioingeniería, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Estado de México, Carretera Lago de Guadalupe Km 3.5, Margarita Maza de Juárez, Atizapán de Zaragoza, Estado de México, México, E-mail:
Jhared Axel Mora-Jiménez and Vanessa Andreina Alvarez-Rodriguez contributed equally to this work.

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Author contributions: Jhared Axel Mora-Jiménez and Vanessa Andreina Alvarez-Rodriguez collected the data, performed analysis, constructed the process in SuperPro designer and wrote the paper. Sebastián Cisneros-Hernández, constructed the process in SuperPro designer, performed the analysis and wrote the paper. Carolina Ramírez-Martínez collected the data and wrote the paper. Alberto Ordaz conceived and designed the analysis, performed the analysis and wrote the paper. The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Research funding: None declared.

  5. Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.

Nomenclature

AOCF

Annual fixed operating cost (USD)

AOCV

Annual variable operating cost (USD)

DC

Direct Cost (USD)

DFC

Direct Fixed Capital (USD)

Di

Impeller diameter (m)

FDC

Facility-dependent costs (USD)

Fl

Flow number (−)

Fr

Froude number (−)

GP

Gross Profit (USD)

IC

Indirect Cost (USD)

IRR |

Internal Rate of Return

LRT

Labor Rate per Type (−)

MPP

Minimum profitable productivity (g d−1 L−1)

N

Stirring rate (rpm)

N p

Power number (−)

NP

Net Profit (USD)

NPV

Net present value (USD)

OC

Other Costs (USD)

P

Ungassed power input (Watss)

PC

Equipment Purchase Cost (USD)

P g

Gassed power input (Watts)

Re

Reynolds number (−)

ROI

Return on Investment

TI

Total Investment (USD)

TLC

Total Labor Cost (USD)

TLD

Total Labor Demand (USD)

Y P/X

Indigodine production yield (−)

Y X/S

Growth yield (−)

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Received: 2023-12-21
Accepted: 2024-05-19
Published Online: 2024-06-11

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cppm-2023-0098
Keywords for this article
indigoidine; natural pigment; minimum profitable productivity; SuperPro; process simulation

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Review
  3. Computational chemistry unveiled: a critical analysis of theoretical coordination chemistry and nanostructured materials
  4. Research Articles
  5. Reducing sludge formation by enhancing biological decay of biomass: a mathematical model
  6. Numerical investigation of discharge pressure effect on steam ejector performance in renewable refrigeration cycle by considering wet steam model and dry gas model
  7. Natural pigment indigoidine production: process design, simulation, and techno-economic assessment
  8. Energy efficiency in cooling systems: integrating machine learning and meta-heuristic algorithms for precise cooling load prediction
  9. A parametric study on syngas production by adding CO2 and CH4 on steam gasification of biomass system using ASPEN Plus
  10. Temperature optimization model to inhibit zero-order kinetic reactions
  11. Multi-objective Bonobo optimisers of industrial low-density polyethylene reactor
  12. Assessment the thermal performance of square twisted double tube heat exchanger with Al2O3 nanofluid
  13. Short Communication
  14. Layouts and tips for a typical final-year chemical engineering graduation project
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