Waste Apple Pomace Conversion to Acrylic Acid: Economic and Potential Environmental Impact Assessments

Oseweuba Valentine Okoro,Amin Shavandi,Houman Alimoradi,Lei Nie

doi:10.3390/fermentation8010021

Oseweuba Valentine Okoro, Amin Shavandi + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation8010021

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Abstract

The global demand for acrylic acid (AA) is increasing due to its wide range of applications. Due to this growing demand, alternative AA production strategies must be explored to avoid the exacerbation of prevailing climate and global warming issues since current AA production strategies involve fossil resources. Investigations regarding alternative strategies for AA production therefore constitute an important research interest. The present study assesses waste apple pomace (WAP) as a feedstock for sustainable AA production. To undertake this assessment, process models based on two production pathways were designed, modelled and simulated in ASPEN plus® software. The two competing production pathways investigated included a process incorporating WAP conversion to lactic acid (LA) prior to LA dehydration to generate AA (denoted as the fermentation–dehydration, i.e., FD, pathway) and another process involving WAP conversion to propylene prior to propylene oxidation to generate AA (denoted as the thermochemical–fermentation–oxidation, i.e., TFO, pathway). Economic performance and potential environmental impact of the FD and TFO pathways were assessed using the metrics of minimum selling price (MSP) and potential environmental impacts per h (PEI/h). The study showed that the FD pathway presented an improved economic performance (MSP of AA: USD 1.17 per kg) compared to the economic performance (MSP of AA: USD 1.56 per kg) of the TFO pathway. Crucially, the TFO process was determined to present an improved environmental performance (2.07 kPEI/h) compared to the environmental performance of the FD process (8.72 kPEI/h). These observations suggested that the selection of the preferred AA production pathway or process will require a tradeoff between economic and environmental performance measures via the integration of a multicriteria decision assessment in future work.

Highlights

The increasing threat of catastrophic climate effects [1] due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and natural resource depletion have, in recent times, motivated research into the production of “green” products
Given that the implementation of such biorefineries has far been limited by low profitability and concerns about poor commercialization [3], the use of waste biomass streams has been proposed as one strategy that may enhance overall economic performance, given that feedstock cost is an important factor that influences biorefinery economic performance [3,4]
The poor management of this waste apple pomace (WAP) stream may lead to unfavorable environmental outcomes such as uncontrolled GHG emissions from the disposal of pomace in landfills, unwanted acidification of agricultural soils via leachate formation and the pollution of underground waters [5]

Summary

Introduction

The increasing threat of catastrophic climate effects [1] due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and natural resource depletion have, in recent times, motivated research into the production of “green” products. Some of these green products, produced via biorefinery of biomass, are capable of partly (or completely) replacing their fossil fuel alternatives [2,3]. Fermentation 2022, 8, 21 pomace (WAP) as a useful biorefinery feedstock. The utilization of WAP as a biomass resource presents an opportunity for value extraction while circumventing waste management concerns. The current study seeks to investigate the production of AA from WAP

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