Abstract The orange peel waste is essentially an important residue in many countries, representing more a problem than one opportunity. Most of this residue processing is related to low added value products and it includes the generation of other residues. Among new alternatives to valorize this residue during last years a high added value product is the mucic acid. This work addresses the pre-feasibility analysis of the mucic acid production using galacturonic acid from pectin using Orange Peel Waste (OPW) as feedstock through the biorefinery concept. The proposed biorefinery comprises the pectin extraction using citric acid, mucic acid production from the liquid fraction of the pectin hydrolysis, and biogas production using the remaining solid. The experiments for pectin extraction and biogas production were carried out to determine the yields to be used in the process simulation. The material and energy balances of the biorefinery were obtained through the Aspen Plus V9.0 tool. These results were used in the energy, economic, and environmental evaluation. A preliminary environmental evaluation for the process was done with Waste Reduction Algorithm (WAR) software. The experimental pectin hydrolysis and biogas production yields were 0.15 ± 0.77 g/g of OPW, and 0.256 Nm3/kg of OPW, respectively. The technical assessment of the biorefinery shows a good performance. Besides, the economic analysis of the proposed biorefinery exhibited feasibility at a processing scale of 140 kg/h. An economic sensitivity analysis was done varying the raw materials costs. From this, the low influence of the raw materials costs in the economic feasibility of the process was elucidated at different scales. Finally, the environmental analysis exposed that the environmental impact of the exit streams is lower than the impact of feeding streams.

中文翻译：

---

生物炼制理念下橙皮废料生产粘酸的预可行性分析

摘要 在许多国家，橘皮废料本质上是一种重要的残留物，是一个问题而不是一个机会。大多数残渣加工与低附加值产品有关，包括其他残渣的产生。在过去几年中对这种残留物进行增值的新替代品中，一种高附加值产品是粘酸。这项工作解决了使用橙皮废料 (OPW) 作为原料通过生物精炼概念使用来自果胶的半乳糖醛酸生产粘酸的预可行性分析。拟议的生物精炼厂包括使用柠檬酸提取果胶，从果胶水解的液体部分生产粘酸，以及使用剩余固体生产沼气。进行了果胶提取和沼气生产的实验，以确定用于过程模拟的产量。生物精炼厂的材料和能量平衡是通过 Aspen Plus V9.0 工具获得的。这些结果用于能源、经济和环境评估。该过程的初步环境评估是使用废物减少算法 (WAR) 软件完成的。实验果胶水解和沼气产量分别为 0.15 ± 0.77 g/g OPW 和 0.256 Nm3/kg OPW。生物精炼厂的技术评估显示出良好的性能。此外，拟议生物精炼厂的经济分析表明，在 140 kg/h 的加工规模下是可行的。对原材料成本的变化进行了经济敏感性分析。由此，原材料成本对工艺经济可行性的低影响在不同规模上得到了阐明。最后，环境分析表明，出口流的环境影响低于进料流的影响。