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Techno-Economic Assessment of Ferulic Acid Bioproduction from Agro-industrial Waste Using Aspergillus niger

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Abstract

As one of the leading countries in the agro-industrial sector, Indonesia has a wealth of biomass that can be converted into value-added commodities. The processing of this biomass generates waste containing cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, varying with biomass type. Valorizing this biomass presents an opportunity to enhance the profitability of agro-industries while simultaneously producing valuable chemicals like ferulic acid. Ferulic acid is a promising platform chemical that has numerous applications and significant derivative potential. This study conducts a techno-economic and profitability analysis for ferulic acid production using ferulic acid esterase (FAE) enzyme secreted from Aspergillus niger. We utilized SuperPro Designer v13.0 software to simulate the process, considering four scenarios: Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB), corn stover, sugarcane (SC) bagasse, and rice straw as raw materials. The results indicate that SC bagasse is the most optimal raw material, yielding 24.31% ferulic acid. This scenario offers a gross margin of 63.17%, a return on investment (ROI) of 36.27%, and a payback period of 2.76 years at an internal rate of return (IRR) of 27.47%, outperforming other scenarios. Therefore, using SC bagasse as the substrate shows the best overall assessment and simulation results. Our findings not only provide practical insights for the economic viability and sustainability of using different biomass types for high-value biochemical production but also pave the way for further exploration into the efficient utilization of regional biomass resources.

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Funding

This research was partly supported by Q2 Scheme Research Grant (Hibah Publikasi Artikel di Jurnal Internasional Kuartil Q2) No. NKB-678/UN2.RST/HKP.05.00/2022 from Directorate Research and Development Universitas Indonesia awarded to Apriliana Cahya Khayrani, Ph.D.

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Author notes

  1. Apriliana Cahya Khayrani, Ibnu Maulana Hidayatullah and Ignatius Lintang Satyawan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Bioprocess Engineering Program, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok, Depok, West Java, 16424, Indonesia

    Apriliana Cahya Khayrani, Ibnu Maulana Hidayatullah & Fatimah Azizah Riyadi

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok, Depok, West Java, 16424, Indonesia

    Apriliana Cahya Khayrani, Ibnu Maulana Hidayatullah, Ignatius Lintang Satyawan & Fatimah Azizah Riyadi

  3. Department of Life Sciences, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Ignatius Lintang Satyawan

  4. Research Center of Biomedical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok, Depok, West Java, 16424, Indonesia

    Apriliana Cahya Khayrani

  5. Research Center of Biomass Valorization, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok, Depok, West Java, 16424, Indonesia

    Apriliana Cahya Khayrani, Ibnu Maulana Hidayatullah & Fatimah Azizah Riyadi

  6. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Universitas Pertamina, Jakarta, 12220, Indonesia

    Nonni Soraya Sambudi

  7. Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia

    Nor Hasmaliana Abdul Manas

  8. Institute of Bioproduct Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia

    Nor Hasmaliana Abdul Manas

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  1. Apriliana Cahya Khayrani
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Correspondence to Apriliana Cahya Khayrani.

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Khayrani, A.C., Hidayatullah, I.M., Satyawan, I.L. et al. Techno-Economic Assessment of Ferulic Acid Bioproduction from Agro-industrial Waste Using Aspergillus niger. Waste Biomass Valor (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-024-02457-9

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