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. 2021 Dec 27;9(51):17371-17380.
doi: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c06772. Epub 2021 Dec 15.

Ectoine Production from Biogas in Waste Treatment Facilities: A Techno-Economic and Sensitivity Analysis

Víctor Pérez  1   2 , Jose Luis Moltó  3 , Raquel Lebrero  1   2 , Raúl Muñoz  1   2
Affiliations

Ectoine Production from Biogas in Waste Treatment Facilities: A Techno-Economic and Sensitivity Analysis

Víctor Pérez et al. ACS Sustain Chem Eng. .

Abstract

The capacity of haloalkaliphilic methanotrophic bacteria to synthesize ectoine from CH4-biogas represents an opportunity for waste treatment plants to improve their economic revenues and align their processes to the incoming circular economy directives. A techno-economic and sensitivity analysis for the bioconversion of biogas into 10 t ectoine·y-1 was conducted in two stages: (I) bioconversion of CH4 into ectoine in a bubble column bioreactor and (II) ectoine purification via ion exchange chromatography. The techno-economic analysis showed high investment (4.2 M€) and operational costs (1.4 M€·y-1). However, the high margin between the ectoine market value (600-1000 €·kg-1) and the estimated ectoine production costs (214 €·kg-1) resulted in a high profitability for the process, with a net present value evaluated at 20 years (NPV20) of 33.6 M€. The cost sensitivity analysis conducted revealed a great influence of equipment and consumable costs on the ectoine production costs. In contrast to alternative biogas valorization into heat and electricity or into low added-value bioproducts, biogas bioconversion into ectoine exhibited high robustness toward changes in energy, water, transportation, and labor costs. The worst- and best-case scenarios evaluated showed ectoine break-even prices ranging from 158 to 275 €·kg-1, ∼3-6 times lower than the current industrial ectoine market value.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Simplified process flow diagram for CH4-biogas bioconversion into ectoine. The process was divided into two different stages: (I) ectoine biosynthesis from biogas and (II) ectoine extraction and purification.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total Investment Costs (TIC) of the biogas valorization into ectoine process. In yellow bars, the TIC of the process. In blue bars, the TIC of the different items for the ectoine production from biogas. In red bars, the TIC of the different items for the downstream processing of ectoine.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Individual share of the operational costs for ectoine production from biogas.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Sensitivity analysis of ectoine production costs toward the most relevant capital and operational costs. All the parameters were increased and decreased individually by 25%.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Sensitivity analysis of ectoine production costs toward changes in (A) interest rate, (B) tax rate.
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