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The urgent call for environmentally sustainable methods and bio-based products to meet the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 is particularly crucial in Africa, notably Nigeria. The challenge lies in integrating a systemic approach, viewing the world holistically, and prioritizing environmental preservation alongside economic development. Addressing pressing issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, habitat preservation, poverty, hunger, and disease requires concurrent focus on cleaner energy sources, improved air and water quality, efficient resource conservation, fair food distribution, and accessible healthcare. Stringent regulations, vigilant oversight, and effective enforcement are imperative to curb emissions, pollution, and waste. Simultaneously, directing research toward sustainable bio-production, environmental restoration, and turning oil palm resources into value-added bio-products via integrated algal/oil palm biorefineries is crucial. Exploring biochemical applications in pharmacy is part of this pursuit. An evaluation of Nigeria's oil palm mill life cycle, scrutinizing practices and potential, was conducted. Nigeria's pathway to a sustainable oil palm industry, addressing electricity crises, fossil fuel dependency, waste management, and fostering sustainable cities, involves converting waste to wealth via integrated algal/oil palm residue biorefineries. Achieving this could mean building new biorefineries or revamping existing ones through a hybrid system. Despite unrealized policies, Nigeria can address energy and waste issues while harnessing bioenergy, biopharmaceuticals, and biochemicals through an integrated algal/oil palm refinery.

This work reported the effects of heat-assisted extraction (HAE) temperature (35–55 °C), solid: liquid (1:20–1:50 g/mL) and time (100–200 min) on the total phenolic content (TPC, GAE/g), bioactive extracts yield (EYs, %) and antioxidant activity (AA, AAE/g) of Senna alata leaves (SALs) using the Box-Behnken experimental design. Multi-objective HAE process optimization was also carried out. The large scale (1000 L extractor capacity) HAE integrated process was thereafter designed using the global optimum data and techno-economically analyzed. Profitability sensitivity and uncertainty analyzes were conducted on the large scale integrated process to determine the associated risk. The extraction temperature, solid: liquid and time had significant effects on TPC, EYs and AA. The extraction conditions at 54.97 °C, 41.59 g/mL and 100 min gave an optimum TPC, EYs and AA of 84.3897 mg GAE/g, 21.3607% and 6.61696 µM AAE/g, respectively. The phenolic profiling showed that SALs extracts were rich in betulinic, gallic, chlorogenic, caffeic and ferulic acids. The large scale integrated plant possessed net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IIR), return on investment (ROI) and payback time (PBT) of 193.511 US$, 7.11%, 13.97%, and 7.16 y, respectively. The certainty of obtaining base case NPV and ROI were 55.88 and 60.96%. Out of technical and cost variables selected for sensitivity analysis, extracts recovery contributed the most (26.6 and 27.9% in NPV and ROI, respectively) while the extraction temperature and SALs purchase cost did not contribute significantly to the variance in NPV and ROI.

This work presents an integrated heat-assisted extraction process for the production of crude anthocyanins powder (CAnysP) from Hibiscus sabdariffa calyx using SuperPro Designer. The influence of process scale-up (0.04 -1000L) and variables (temperature, time and ethanol proportion in solvent) were investigated by adopting a circumscribed central composite design on techno-economic parameters such as annual production rate (APR) and unit production cost (UPC) CAnysP. The individual runs in the CCCD were taken as different process scenario and simulated independently. Multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP) was further used to develop robust predictive models. The robustness of the model and sensitivity analysis were ascertained using the Monte Carlo simulation. The process scenario at 30 min, 30 °C, 50% and 1000 L possessed the highest CAnysP APR and lowest UPC. MGGP- models predicted R2 = 0.9984 for CAnysP APR and R2 = 0.9643 for UPC and certainty (99.98% for CAnysP APR and 98.47% for UPC).

This work investigated the influence of process variables of extraction temperature (35–55 °C), solid to liquid ratio (1:20–1:50 g/mL) and time (100–200 min) on the total phenolic content (TPC) and yield (EY) of Carica papaya leaves (CPL) extracts using Box-Behnken experimental design available in Design Expert software. Bi-objective process optimization was also carried out using the desirability function algorithm. The optimum process variables were later used to design an integrated process for the production of CPL extracts with the assistance of SuperPro Designer software. Scale-up studies and economic analysis for CPL extracts production were investigated in the range of 0.638–20.431 × 103 kg CPL extracts/y to determine the most economically feasible production capacity based on the minimum unit production cost (UPC) of CPL extracts. The risk and sensitivity analyses of the most economically feasible production scale were carried out using the Monte Carlo simulation in Oracle Crystal Ball software. Process variables had notable influences on the TPC and EY of CPL extracts. The extraction temperature of 35 °C, solid to liquid ratio of 40.25 g/mL and time of 100 min gave the optimum TPC of 74.65 mg GAE/g d.b and EY of 18.76 % (w/w). HPLC results indicated that CPL extracts were rich in gallic, betulinic, chlorogenic, ellagic, ferulic and caffeic acids. The designed integrated process showed similar behavior with the laboratory scale of 0.18758 g CPL extracts/batch. The preliminary techno-economic analysis indicated that plant capacity has a strong dependence on the material & energy demands and process economics. Plant capacity of 19.857 × 103 kg CPL extracts/y possessed the least UPC and was selected as the most economically feasible scale. The certainty of obtaining base case UPC value of 525.21 US$/kg CPL extracts was 75.20%. Sensitivity analysis showed that extracts recovery, CPL/water, centrifuge purchase cost, extraction time, extractor purchase cost and extraction temperature contributed -5.3 %, +42.8%, +4.0%, +47.1%, +0.1%, and +0.5%, respectively to the variance in UPC of CPL extracts.

The wastewater from paint manufacturing industry contains high quantity of pollutants that are generated from washing equipment, as well as chemical additives. Hence, coagulation–flocculation was applied in the present study to evaluate the performance of some natural coagulant derived from Hibiscus esculentus L,(okra) Detarium microcarpum,(sweet dater) Xanthosoma (cocoyam) and Crassostrea Virginica, (oyster shell) in the removal of turbidity from paint wastewater (PW). The coagulants were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). A laboratory jar test was employed for the experiments. Process kinetic was studied to determine coagulation-flocculation parameters such as coagulation rate constant and coagulation half-life τ1/2. The effects of the operating parameters such as initial pH of the wastewater, coagulant dosage and settling time affecting the efficiency of turbidity removal were studied in a one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) process. Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was used in designing the experiment; evaluate the individual and interactive effect of the variables and determining the optimum conditions. Statistical parameters such as coefficient of determination R2, sum of square roots due to error (SSE) and the root mean square error (RMSE) were used to evaluate the adequacy of the process. The optimum removal of turbidity was observed at pH range 2–4, dosage 100–200 mg/L and settling time of 30 min for the coagulants, with removal efficiency of 60–92.6% a second order polynomial regression equation with R2 values of 0.9644, 0.9827, 0.9707 and 0.9718 for OSC, DMC, CYC and ODC, respectively. While the coagulation half-time, τ1/2 ranges from 0.98 for OSC, 0.87 for DMC, 13.73 for CYC and 9.15 for ODC. The study has proved the coagulant can be used in treatment of turbidity from paint wastewater.