Biorefinery of food and beverage waste valorisation for sugar syrups production: Techno-economic assessment

Techno-economic analysis was conducted to evaluate a food and beverage (F&B) waste valorisation process for sugar syrup production via integrated biorefinery. A comprehensive process model was developed with a capacity of 10 metric tons (MT) hour−1 of food waste and 14 MT hour−1 of beverage waste. Three scenarios were proposed with different types of sugar syrups as the main products: Scenario I) fructose syrup, Scenario II) high fructose syrup-42, and Scenario III) glucose-rich syrup. Mass balance showed conversion yields of 0.24 MT sugar syrups per MT of F&B waste, while lipids (0.07 MT per MT of F&B waste) and insect feed (0.44 MT per MT of F&B waste) were the co-products proposed to be used for other industrial biorefinery processes. All scenarios were observed to be economically self-sustainable with net profit generation (US$11-26 million year−1) and positive net present values (US$92-294 million). Along with the net production costs (US$443-665 MT−1), the sugar syrups derived from the F&B waste have relatively low minimum selling prices of US$157-747 MT−1 at a 5% discount rate. Lastly, sensitivity analysis was performed which found that the prices of sugar syrups were the largest determinants of their profitability. This study proposes a significant techno-economic basis for F&B waste biorefinery, which offers a successful demonstration for food and drink industries adopting these biotechnological processes for the same plant size.