Economic feasibility of a pilot-scale fermentative succinic acid production from bakery wastes

In this paper, the techno-economic study for a pilot-scale production of succinic acid from food waste via fermentation was evaluated. The pilot plant was based in Hong Kong and designed for converting 1 tonne/day of bakery waste into succinic acid. The mass and energy balance of the process was simulated by computer package Super-Pro Designer (R). The total capital investment for the plant and the total production cost were US$ 1,118,243 and US$ 230,750/year respectively. Overall revenue generated from the process was US$ 374,041/year. The return on investment, payback period and internal rate of return of the project were 12.8%, 7.2 years and 15.3% respectively. The findings indicated that the fermentative succinic acid production from bakery waste was feasible. This is important for attracting investment and industrialization interest on the biorefinery process using domestic wastes as raw materials. (C) 2013 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.