Production of cello-oligosaccharides through the biorefinery concept: A technical-economic and life-cycle assessment

Producers look for co-products to increase the value chain and production flexibility. With a high market aggregate value, the production of cello-oligosaccharides (COS) as functional oligosaccharides from cellulosic substrates has been investigated. As COS/cellopentaose production process are rarely described in the literature, this study estimated the cellopentaose production cost and performed a life-cycle assessment of the cellopentaose production process previously developed using sugarcane straw as a substrate. The results demonstrated that, through the six scenarios studied, it was possible to obtain a cellopentaose unit production cost varying between USD 0.40 and 1.15/mg, and that optimization in the upstream sector can reduce the total plant direct cost and the overall life-cycle impact. The results also suggested that a better understanding of the hydrolysis solid/liquid proportion is necessary to reduce the bulk material cost. An environmental impact reduction of between 16.2% and 19.9% was also observed. In terms of the integrated biorefinery concept, sugarcane straw fermentation represents a prospective technology for the production of COS.