Orange Peel Waste management alternatives to obtain added-value

products and energy vectors through the biorefinery concept

Mariana Ortiz-Sanchez1, Juan Camilo Solarte-Toro1, Carlos Eduardo Orrego-Alzate2, Carlos Daniel Acosta-Medina3,

Carlos Ariel Cardona-Alzate1*

1Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria, Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales, Caldas, Zip Code: 170003, Colombia.

2Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria, Departamento de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales, Caldas, Zip Code: 170003, Colombia.

3Departamento de Matemáticas y Estadística, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales, Caldas, Zip Code: 170003, Colombia. 

Presenting author email: mortizs@unal.edu.co

*Corresponding author email: ccardonaal@unal.edu.co

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 1

Outline

2

1.Introduction 2.Research objective3.Methodology

a) Experimental stageb) Simulation and evaluation stage

4.Results a) OPW characterizationb) Experimental results c) Mass and energy resultsd) Economic assessment

5.Conclusions 6.References

2Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 2

3

1. Introduction

Orange crop

50%

50%

Orange Juice Production 40-50%

Landfill Compost

Volatile compoun

ds

Non-volatile

compounds

Juice

Orange commercializ

ation

3Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 3

4

Biogas production

Pectin extraction

Essential Oil

extractionCitric acid production

Fertilizer

Activated Carbon

Stand-alone process

Therefore, the integral valorization of OPW ought to be addressed to obtain

added-value-products and energy vectors derived from the main OPW

components through the:

Biorefinery concept.

Feasible or not?

4

1. Introduction

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 4

5

The aim of this work was to evaluate the essential oil, pectin and biogas integral production , applying the biorefinery concept, from a technical, economic and energy perspectives.

Experimental work Process simulation

Technical and Economic analysis

5

2. Research objective

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 5

66

3. Methodology

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 6

Process simulationTechnical and

economic assessment

Mass balance

Energy Balance

Chemical composition

Proximate analysis

Chemical characterizat

ion

Experimental yield of the products

Cost of capital (or fixed capital investment).

Operating costsVPN (Net Present

Value)Return on

investment (ROI)Product Cost/kg

Experimental stage

7

CHEMICAL COMPOSITIONCompound Method Ref

Extractives NREL/TP-510-42619 (Sluiter et al. 2008)Holocellulose ASTMD1104-56 (Han and Rowell 2008)Cellulose TAPPI T203 (TAPPI 1999)Hemicellulose Subtraction between the holocellulose and

cellulose 

Acid insoluble lignin

TAPPI T222 (TAPPI 2006)

Total pectin Yu et al. (1996) (Yu, Reitmeier, and Love 1996)

Fat Rivas et al. (2008) (Rivas et al. 2008)Protein Macro-Kjeldahl (Yu, Reitmeier, and Love

1996)Ash NREL/TP-510-42622 (Sluiter et al. 2005)Moisture ASTM E871-82 (ASTM E871-82 2013)

PROXIMATE ANALYSISCompound Method Ref

Volatile matter ASTM D1102-84, ASTM E872-82 (ASTM E872-82 2013; ASTM D1102-84 2013)

Fixed carbon ASTM E872-82 (ASTM E872-82 2013) 7

3. Methodologya) Experimental stage

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 7

88

3. Methodologya) Experimental stage

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 8

The inoculum was obtained from an anaerobic reactor

located in a soluble coffee company

Essential oil extraction

Steam distillation (4 hours)

Pectin extraction

80°C, 60 min, pH 2.8

Biogas productionStandard method

VDI 4630

Inoculum

Steam

Citric acid

OPW The OPW samples were

cut in small pieces of 1 cm.

OPW Exhausted

Solid Fraction

PECTIN

ESSENTIAL OIL

BIOGAS

Digestate

9

3. Methodologyb) Process simulation

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 9

10

3. Methodologyb) Technical and economic assessment

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 10

Process simulation: The biorefinery was simulated using the commercial software Aspen Plus® to obtain the mass and energy balances

Energy analysis: The heating and cooling needs of the biorefinery were used as input data to perform the energy analysis. Aspen Energy Analyzer.Economic analysis: the economic analysis was carried out based on the methodology proposed by Peters et al. and using the equipment cost estimated in the Aspen Economic Analyzer software

Compounds Share (%wt. dry)

(Marín et al,2016)

Extractives 30.76 ± 1.07 14.07Fiber 44.91   Cellulose 30.38 ± 0.50 37.52 Hemicellulose 9.42 ± 4.36 11.04 Lignin 5.11 ± 2.14 7.52Pectin 11.13 ± 0.16 23.02Protein 4.90 ± 0.20 9.06Fat 4.60 ± 1.91 4Ash 3.64 ± 0.20 2.56 Moisture 9.78 ± 0.15 7

Compounds Share (%wt. dry) Volatile Matter 81.92% ± 0.15

Fixed Carbon 17.67% ± 1.63HHV (MJ/kg)  11.76

4. Resultsa) OPW characterization

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 11

4. Resultsb) Experimental results

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 12

The essential oil obtained through steam distillation yields 0.61% w/w. This result is higher than the reported value by Patsalou (0.43% w/w). The main

factors to explain the different results are the operating conditions of the extraction process such as, extraction time and extraction method.

Reports from the literature indicate pectin yield ranges between 1% to 20%. Guzel et al. [26] performed pectin extraction at 80 ° C for 60 min and pH 1 by conventional extraction. As a result, a yield of 11.46% was obtained. In this

work, a yield of 10.35% was obtained

For digestion of 0.5 mL, 2015 mL of accumulated biogas was produced, with a methane composition of 66.73%, which after the third day stabilized. The yield of biogas was 671.67 mL/gVS (447.82 mL CH4/gVS). This result is high when

compared with the performance given for an OPW without prior pretreatment.

4. Resultsb) Mass and energy results

Essential oil6.1

ton/h

Pectin103.5 ton/h

Biogas2.79 /h

 

Base case of 10 ton/h

Utility Flux UnitElectricity 703.5

3kW

Low steam 2.64 t/hHigh steam 2.36 t/hMiddle steam 6.00 t/hCooling water 428.2

5m3/h

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 13

4. Resultsb) Economic assessment

Total raw material cost

Total utilities cost

Operating labor cost

Maintenance cost

Operating charges

Plant overhead

G and A cost

Depreciation

0 10 20 30 40

From the cost of raw materials, 32%

corresponds to cost of OPW, 41% represents the

steam used in the essential oil extraction, 12% corresponds to the citric acid used in the

pectin extraction and 14% for process energy.

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 14

4. Resultsb) Economic assessment

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 15

ProductIncome

[mUSD/year]Allocation Factor

(Economic)Allocated Cost [mUSD/year]

Production CostUSD/kg

Essential oil

6.01 0.05 5.83 1.39

Pectin 35.61 0.32 34.53 1.41Biogas 76.20 0.68 73.90 0.44

Essential oil

1.43 USD/kg

Pectin

1.45 USD/kg

Biogas

0.45 USD/kg

Three production costs are lower than the commercial reported sales price, which is an initial indicator of a

good economic performance of the process

for the base case.

4. Resultsb) Economic assessment

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 16

-2 0 2 4 6 8 10-30

-10

10

30

Years

NP

V [

mU

SD

]The NPV is the difference between the present value of the cash inflows and the present value of the cash outflows (including the initial cost) over a period of time. For a period of 10 years it would be counted with an accumulated cash flow of 19.59 mUSD and payback period of 4 years.

5. Conclusions

• The yields obtained in the proposed OPW biorefinery are similar with different results found in the open literature for the products processed in stand-alone way. Therefore, this shows the feasibility of the biorefinery concept to valorize agro-industrial waste. On the other hand, the energy evaluation shows high energy efficiencies in terms of renewable energy use to supply the requirements of the biorefinery. In fact, the overall energy efficiency of the biorefinery was 45%, which demonstrates the need to improve in a energy way the configuration of the biorefinery.

• The economic analysis was carried out with the purpose of stipulating if the biorefinery could have economic viability from a preliminary point of view in the Colombian context. The parameters such as the Net Present Value (NPV), the return period of the investment and the internal rate of return were necessary to determine the viability of this configuration under the Colombian context.

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 17

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors express their acknowledgments to the Project entitled “Biorefinería para el tratamiento de residuos de cítricos –

Biorefinery of Citrus Processing Waste (CPW)” from ERANET LAC 2017 and Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion (COLCIENCIAS - ERANET-LAC) for

financing this research. The authors express their gratitude to the Reconstrucción del tejido social en zonas de pos-conflicto en

Colombia del proyecto 41858. This work has been partially financed by the Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento para la

Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación, Fondo Francisco Jose de Caldas with contract number 213-2018 and code 58960.

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 18

6. References

19

• Gavrilescu M. (2014) Biomass Potential for Sustainable Environment, Biorefinery Products and Energy. In: Visa I. (eds) Sustainable Energy in the Built Environment - Steps Towards nZEB. Springer Proceedings in Energy. Springer, Cham

• IEA Bioenergy Task42. National BioEconomy Strategies IEA Bioenergy Implementing Agreement Countries Bioeconomy Survey 2014. 2014.

• Moncada J, Aristizábal M. V, Cardona A. CA. Design strategies for sustainable biorefineries. Biochem Eng J. 2016;116:122–34.

• Van Ree R, Annevelink B. Status Report Biorefinery 847. 2007.

• Kamm, B.; Gruber, P.R.; Kamm, M. (2006). Biorefineries – Industrial Processes and Products. Wiley-VCH, ISBN: 3-527-31027-4, Weinheim, Germany.

• Cherubini F, Jungmeier G, Willisch M, Willke T, Skiadas I, Ree Van R, et al. Toward a common classification approach for biorefinery systems. Biofuels, Bioprod Biorefining. 2009;1–13.

• Smith R. Chemical Process Design and Integration. McGraw Hill. 2005. 1-713 p.

• Douglas JM. Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes. McGraw-Hill, editor. 1988. 1-601 p.

• Moncada Botero J. Design and Evaluation of Sustainable Biorefineries from Feedstock in Tropical Regions. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Departamento de Ingeniería Química. Master Thesis; 2012.

• Moncada J, Posada JA, Ramirez A. Early sustainability assessment for potential confi gurations of integrated biorefi neries. Screening platform chemicals. Biofuels, Bioprod biorefining. 2015;9:722–48.

• Aristizábal Marulanda V. Jet biofuel production from agroindustrial wastes through furfural platform. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Departamento de Ingeniería Química. Master Thesis; 2015.

• Aristizábal M V, García V CA, Cardona A CA. Integrated Production of Different Types of Bioenergy from Oil Palm Through Biorefinery Concept. Waste and Biomass Valorization. 2016;7(4):737–45.

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 19

Orange Peel Waste management alternatives to obtain value-added

products and energy vectors through the biorefinery concept

Mariana Ortiz-Sanchez1, Juan Camilo Solarte-Toro1, Carlos Eduardo Orrego-Alzate2, Carlos Daniel Acosta-Medina3,

Carlos Ariel Cardona-Alzate1

1Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria, Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales, Caldas, Zip Code: 170003, Colombia.

2Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria, Departamento de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales, Caldas, Zip Code: 170003, Colombia.

3Departamento de Matemáticas y Estadística, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales, Caldas, Zip Code: 170003, Colombia. 

20

Thanks for your attention

Research Group Chemical, Catalytic, and Biotechnological process 20