In this work, a solvent‐based extraction procedure and a procedure using supercritical CO₂ to obtain β‐carotene from Dunaliella salina were compared from environmental and economic perspectives. Both processes were simulated using a biorefinery scheme in which β‐carotene was obtained and the waste biomass was used to produce energy. The results were used to carry out a life‐cycle assessment (LCA). The LCA results showed that a supercritical process was better in terms of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the low extraction yield of this technology makes it necessary to use large amounts of nutrients, whose production increases toxicity‐related impacts related to organic solvent extraction. This also affects the β‐carotene price, which is twofold higher in the case of a supercritical extraction process‐based biorefinery. The results therefore indicate that the potential benefits of the supercritical process in terms of environmental issues do not balance the drawbacks related to its low extraction yield. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

中文翻译：

---

杜氏盐藻β-胡萝卜素生产的环境和技术经济评价。生物精炼方法

在这项工作中，从环境和经济角度比较了基于溶剂的提取程序和使用超临界CO ₂从杜氏盐藻中获得β-胡萝卜素的程序。使用生物精炼方案模拟了两个过程，其中β获得了胡萝卜素，并将废弃的生物质用于生产能源。结果用于进行生命周期评估（LCA）。LCA结果表明，就能耗和温室气体排放而言，超临界过程更好。但是，这项技术的提取率低，因此必须使用大量的养分，养分的生产会增加与有机溶剂提取有关的毒性相关影响。这也会影响β-胡萝卜素的价格，这是基于超临界萃取工艺的生物精炼厂价格的两倍。因此，结果表明，超临界工艺在环境问题方面的潜在优势无法平衡与萃取率低相关的弊端。©2019年化学工业协会和John Wiley＆Sons，Ltd