Process development and techno-economic analysis of co- production of colorants and enzymes valuing agro-industrial citrus waste

Author(s)

Lima, Caio A. ; Bento, Heitor B. S. ; Picheli, Flavio P. ; Paz-Cedeno, Fernando R. ; Mussagy, Cassamo U. ; Masarin, Fernando ; Acosta, Mario A. Torres ; Santos-Ebinuma, Valeria C.

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY; v. 35, p. 13-pg., 2023-10-01.

Abstract

Valorization of waste generated during industrial process has gained considerable attention in re-cent years. The citrus industry produces high amount of waste that can be used to obtain biomole-cules with significant economic value. This study aims to investigate the potential of citrus by-product (CB) as carbon source for the co-production of red colorants (RC) and enzymes by the fil-amentous fungi Talaromyces amestolkiae in submerged cultivation using an orbital shaker. The microorganism was able to metabolize the CB employing their sugars as carbon source to the pro-duction of RC achieving a colorant yield of 0.016 g.L-1h-1 for batch when the culture media was supplemented with glucose and glutamate monosodium. Alongside the production of colorants, the microorganism also produced enzymes, including endo-glucanases, xylanase, and & beta;-glucosidase (with the latter being the most abundantly produced, specifically 2.8 U/mL). Al-though the economic analysis of the process indicated that further improvements are required to make the current production of this colorant economically viable, especially if citrus waste is uti-lized as the main source material. Considering a biorefinery approach, the results achieved in this study are quite promising, given the generation of high commercial value commodities, such as natural colorants and enzymes, using citrus by-product. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 21/06686-8 - Biotechnological process for the development of natural colorants from microbial sources for industrial application: phase II
• Grantee: Valéria de Carvalho Santos Ebinuma
• Support Opportunities: Program for Research on Bioenergy (BIOEN) - Young Investigators Grants - Phase 2
• FAPESP's process: 14/01580-3 - Biotechnological process for the development of new natural colorants from microorganisms for industrial application
• Grantee: Valéria de Carvalho Santos Ebinuma
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• FAPESP's process: 19/15493-9 - Development of ionic liquids-based electroconductive hydrogels
• Grantee: Valéria de Carvalho Santos Ebinuma
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 21/09175-4 - BIOREFINERY AS A PLATFORM FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FUNGAL COLORANTS
• Grantee: Fernanda de Oliveira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral