2026-04-14T19:29:58Zhttps://uvadoc.uva.es/oai/request

oai:uvadoc.uva.es:10324/516652025-02-18T08:53:10Zcom_10324_1173com_10324_931com_10324_894col_10324_1371

Ectoine production from biogas in waste treatment facilities: A techno-economic and sensitivity analysis Pérez Martínez, Victor Moltó, Jose Luis Lebrero Fernández, Raquel Muñoz Martínez, Raquel Producción Científica The capacity of haloalkaliphilic methanotrophic bacteria to synthesize ectoine from CH4-biogas represents an opportunity for waste treatment plants to improve their economic revenues and align their processes to the incoming circular economy directives. A techno-economic and sensitivity analysis for the bioconversion of biogas into 10 t ectoine·y–1 was conducted in two stages: (I) bioconversion of CH4 into ectoine in a bubble column bioreactor and (II) ectoine purification via ion exchange chromatography. The techno-economic analysis showed high investment (4.2 M€) and operational costs (1.4 M€·y–1). However, the high margin between the ectoine market value (600–1000 €·kg–1) and the estimated ectoine production costs (214 €·kg–1) resulted in a high profitability for the process, with a net present value evaluated at 20 years (NPV20) of 33.6 M€. The cost sensitivity analysis conducted revealed a great influence of equipment and consumable costs on the ectoine production costs. In contrast to alternative biogas valorization into heat and electricity or into low added-value bioproducts, biogas bioconversion into ectoine exhibited high robustness toward changes in energy, water, transportation, and labor costs. The worst- and best-case scenarios evaluated showed ectoine break-even prices ranging from 158 to 275 €·kg–1, ∼3–6 times lower than the current industrial ectoine market value. 2022-01-24T09:04:51Z 2022-01-24T09:04:51Z 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/article ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2021, vol. 9, n. 51. p. 17371-17380 2168-0485 https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/51665 10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c06772 eng https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c06772 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/837998 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ © 2021 The Authors Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional ACS Publications SI