Techno-economic analysis and feasibility of industrial-scale biodiesel production from spent coffee grounds

The depletion of the overall provision of crude oil has contributed to the penury for replacing diesel inside the tape drive industry to mitigate their impact. The purpose of the study is to perform an economic analysis to key out the viability of developing biodiesel from the coffee oil extracted from spent coffee grounds (SCG) with the backing of both technological and economic validity. The choice of the most effective extraction and conversion operation for biodiesel production allowed for a preliminary flow diagram to be outlined. A detailed description of the overall production process was described, and detailed equipment specifications that include the sizing of equipment and utility requirements were also given. The project's investment is about $123 million, and the revenues generated from biodiesel's sales are low. In the 15-year life of the plant, the cost of the task based on the baseline assumptions suggests that fixed and capital costs that can be recovered following the life of a plant will not be able to be retrieved. Therefore, the venture would not be profitable and, therefore, not recommended, based on the economic analysis results derived from many assumptions. However, with detailed process economic calculations that considered accurate cost estimations constructed from sensible mass and energy balances, a much better judgement can be made.

Automated summary

The economic analysis shows that producing biodiesel from coffee oil extracted from spent coffee grounds is not a feasible investment. Despite detailed cost estimations and process analysis, the low sales revenue and unrecoverable investment costs make the project unprofitable.