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Publication about Ectoine Production from Biogas in Waste Treatment Facilities

“Ectoine Production from Biogas in Waste Treatment Facilities: A Techno-Economic and Sensitivity Analysis” is the title of a recently published paper in the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering within the DEEP PURPLE project.

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • This work constituted the first techno-economic study of the large-scale production of ectoine from biogas in waste treatment plants
  • The utilization of biogas as raw material for the production of ectoine entailed a 3- to 6- fold decrease of production costs when compared to the currently established industrial processes
  • The results indicated a high profitability of the process with a payback time below 3 years in all the scenarios evaluated, motivated by the wide difference between biogas-based ectoine production costs (158-275 €/kg) and the current ectoine market price (600-1000 €/kg)
  • In contrast to other bioprocesses, the biogas-to-ectoine process showed a high economic robustness towards changes on water, energy, labor, and transportation costs
  • This study demonstrated that large-scale production of high added-value products from biogas represents a highly profitable alternative to the current utilization of biogas as energy source, but also a much more feasible valorization pathway than the production of low added-value bioproducts

Please find more information and the link to the open access on the DEEP PURPLE publication here