The downward trend of global sugar market prices, as well as rising energy prices, threaten the survival of the South African sugar industry. Operating a single‐stage sugar crystallization process, which produces less crystalline sugar along with sucrose‐rich A‐molasses as a by‐product, to which value can be added in an integrated biorefinery, could be a viable solution for the industry. It would offer a diversification option as opposed to the current three‐stage crystallization process designed to achieve maximum sugar recovery. This study presents a rigorous Aspen Plus simulation development and economic assessment of different biorefinery scenarios producing succinic acid (SA) and short‐chain fructooligosaccharides (scFOS) from A‐molasses at target market sizes of 440 kt/year and 160 kt/year, respectively, considering the production capacity and market price interplays. In all, seven scenarios of single‐ or multi‐product(s) biorefinery annexed to an existing sugar mill were developed and assessed. Due to the integration benefits, all scenarios studied delivered an internal rate of return (IRR) between 24.1–61.1%, significantly above the required discount rate of 9.7%. In particular, co‐production of SA and scFOS syrup at production rates 40.5 kt/year and 13.5 kt/year from 70% and 30% of the A‐molasses, respectively resulted in the IRR of 56.1% and was considered the most attractive scenario based on the diverse bio‐production, economic performance and easy market entry of the products determined by low minimum selling prices. The proposed integration can lead to the sustainable operation of existing sugar mills by utilizing resources more efficiently, employment of product diversification and job creation. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

中文翻译：

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通过为生物精炼厂的糖蜜增值来振兴甘蔗业

全球食糖市场价格的下跌趋势以及能源价格的上涨，威胁着南非食糖业的生存。操作单阶段糖结晶过程，该过程会产生较少的结晶糖以及副产品富蔗糖的A-糖蜜，可以在综合生物提炼厂中增加价值，这可能是该行业的可行解决方案。与当前旨在实现最大糖回收率的三阶段结晶过程相反，它将提供多样化的选择。这项研究提供了严格的Aspen Plus模拟开发以及对不同生物提炼方案的经济评估，这些方案分别从目标市场规模分别为440 kt /年和160 kt /年的A-糖蜜生产琥珀酸（SA）和短链低聚果糖（scFOS） ，考虑生产能力和市场价格的相互作用。总体上，开发并评估了现有糖厂所附的七种单产品或多产品生物精炼厂的方案。由于整合的好处，所有研究的方案都实现了24.1–61.1％的内部收益率（IRR），大大高于要求的9.7％的折现率。特别是，SA和scFOS糖浆以70％和30％的A-糖蜜的年生产率分别生产40.5 kt和13.5 kt的联合生产，其内部收益率达到56.1％，被认为是最有吸引力的方案基于最低最低销售价格决定的产品多样化的生物生产，经济表现和易于进入市场的基础。拟议的整合可以通过更有效地利用资源，利用产品多样化和创造就业机会，使现有糖厂的可持续运营。©2020年化学工业协会和John Wiley＆Sons，Ltd