article · Food and Bioproducts Processing
Biorefineries often face scale limitations due to constrained biomass supplies, but centralising feedstocks from multiple sources can help achieve higher production volumes. Using sugarcane A-molasses to manufacture lactic acid, a study evaluated how facility size affects economic returns and environmental sustainability. Financial outcomes improved notably as production rose from 90 to 450 kilotonnes per year, reducing the minimum selling price from 1312 to 849 US dollars per tonne while lifting the internal rate of return from 31 to 64 per cent. Growth beyond 450 kilotonnes showed diminishing financial gains. Conversely, environmental burdens climbed steadily with scale across indicators such as global warming potential and ecotoxicity, driven primarily by fuel used in feedstock haulage. Consequently, smaller local configurations yield fewer environmental impacts, whereas larger centralised operations deliver superior commercial returns.
Lactic acid is an important platform chemical used to make acrylic acid, propylene glycol, and biodegradable materials. Establishing viable biorefineries to replace fossil-derived chemicals depends on understanding the operational scale. These findings demonstrate that while centralising agricultural residues lowers production costs significantly, the extra logistics introduce environmental trade-offs that planners must weigh when designing sustainable processing facilities.
This research provides techno-economic and life cycle data for biorefinery developers, sugar processors, and chemical manufacturers evaluating lactic acid facilities. It outlines cost structures, selling prices, and optimum capacities using A-molasses. Because the work is an analytical modelling and simulation assessment rather than a pilot demonstration, real-world deployment remains in the planning and feasibility stage, requiring site-specific project development.
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Biorefineries are vital for advancing circular economy and reducing the effects of products fossil fuels derived products on the environment. However, biorefineries often operate at smaller production scales than fossil refineries due to limited feedstock availability, which may be addressed by centralised processing with multiple feedstock sources. Lactic acid (LA) has several industrial applications and is a platform chemical used to produce products like acrylic acid and propylene glycol. The economic and environmental performances of an integrated biorefinery at different production scales, through different levels of feedstock centralization, were investigated, to determine the optimal scale for sugarcane-based LA production. Decreasing values for the minimum selling price (MSP; 1312–849 US$.t −1 ) and increasing internal rates of return (IRRs; 31–64 %) were observed with increasing conversion scales of sugarcane A-molasses. The MSPs decrease from 90 to 450 kt LA .y −1 with small improvements in profitability beyond 450 kt LA .y −1 , as confirmed by stochastic financial uncertainty analysis. In the environmental assessment, a linear increase was observed across all impact categories, mainly due to the added fuel consumption for feedstock transportation. LA production had a GWP100 range of 0.87–0.95 kg CO 2 -eq.kg LA −1 and an abiotic depletion potential of 12–13 MJ.kg LA −1 which increased as the scale increased. In the ozone depletion category emissions of 9.96×10 −8 -1.13×10 −7 kg CFC-11 eq.kg LA −1 comparable to other studies available in literature. Similarly, emission ranges of 1.11–1.17, 0.63–0.66, and 1581–1641 kg 1,4-DB eq.kg LA −1 were obtained in the human toxicity, freshwater and marine aquatic ecotoxicity categories as the scale increased. Environmentally the smallest scale at which transportation of feedstock was avoided (i.e. 90 kt LA .y −1 ) is preferred as opposed to 450 kt LA .y −1 for economic performance. • A-molasses is a competitive feedstock for lactic acid production in a sugarcane biorefinery. • Lactic acid production in a sugarcane biorefinery has an optimum scale around 450 kt.y −1 . • Environmental impacts benefits for large scale centralisation LA facility is mainly affected by transportation requirements. • A compromise between economic and environmental aspects is required in decision making.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.fbp.2024.09.020
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