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Environmental and techno‐economic evaluation of β ‐carotene production from Dunaliella salina . A biorefinery approach
Author(s) -
Espada Juan J.,
PérezAntolín Daniel,
Vicente Gemma,
Bautista Luis F.,
Morales Victoria,
Rodríguez Rosalía
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
biofuels, bioproducts and biorefining
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.931
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1932-1031
pISSN - 1932-104X
DOI - 10.1002/bbb.2012
Subject(s) - biorefinery , dunaliella salina , supercritical fluid , extraction (chemistry) , life cycle assessment , pulp and paper industry , biomass (ecology) , environmental science , carotene , yield (engineering) , supercritical fluid extraction , production (economics) , biofuel , process engineering , chemistry , waste management , engineering , chromatography , food science , botany , economics , agronomy , materials science , macroeconomics , organic chemistry , metallurgy , algae , biology
In this work, a solvent‐based extraction procedure and a procedure using supercritical CO 2 to obtain β ‐carotene from Dunaliella salina were compared from environmental and economic perspectives. Both processes were simulated using a biorefinery scheme in which β ‐carotene was obtained and the waste biomass was used to produce energy. The results were used to carry out a life‐cycle assessment (LCA). The LCA results showed that a supercritical process was better in terms of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the low extraction yield of this technology makes it necessary to use large amounts of nutrients, whose production increases toxicity‐related impacts related to organic solvent extraction. This also affects the β ‐carotene price, which is twofold higher in the case of a supercritical extraction process‐based biorefinery. The results therefore indicate that the potential benefits of the supercritical process in terms of environmental issues do not balance the drawbacks related to its low extraction yield. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd