Scale-up of the erythritol production technology – Process simulation and techno-economic analysis

Abstract

In this study, the scale-up of erythritol production from glycerol using the Yarrowia lipolytica strain MK1 is proposed. The experiments included increasing the scale from laboratory (VW = 0.002 m3) to pilot plant (VP = 0.5 m3). Only slight differences in the erythritol production rate were observed between the two culture variants. Erythritol concentration in the pilot plant experiment reached 180.3 kg/m3, with productivity 1.25 kg/m3·h and yield 0.533 kg/kg of the total amount of glycerol consumed. A model of an industrial installation for production of erythritol crystals, with the production rate of 1075 MT (Metric tone)/year, based on data derived from experimental work, was developed in SuperPro Designer V9.5 software. The potential of SuperPro Designer software was demonstrated in the framework of detailed analyses of cost-effectiveness and sensitivity for the production process. The industrial application of erythritol production from yeast is strongly dependent on the glycerol price and on the fermentation time. The process is based on cheap raw material, is fully scalable, and the collected data can serve as a basis for development of a production model. To our knowledge, this is the first report about scale-up of microbial erythritol production from glycerol and combined with the fact that the remaining biomass may be used as animal feed, makes the whole technology waste-free and economically viable.