Simultaneous design of integrated cyanobacteria-based biorefinery and its heat exchanger network

RAMOS, MATÍAS; TESTA, ROMINA LASRY; RAMOS, FERNANDO; ESTRADA, VANINA; DIAZ, MARIA SOLEDAD

Computer Aided Chemical Engineering

Elsevier B.V.

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2023 vol. 52 p. 2075 - 2080

1570-7946

In this work we propose a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model for the optimal design of an integrated cyanobacteria-based biorefinery and its heat exchanger network (HEN), considering alternative in-vivo and in-silico Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 strains, designed in our previous work. The objective is to potentially produce pigments, biopolymers, bioethanol, biogas and biofertilizers. The production process includes different alternatives embedded within a superstructure. To assess the feasibility of the biorefinery, we considered the Sustainability Profit (SP), a monetary-based sustainability metric as the objective function. The Net Present Value (NPV) was also calculated. Both indexes give positive values and numerical results provides useful insights on advanced biofuels production with metabolic engineered cyanobacteria. Comparison with suboptimal solutions using in-vivo strains is also provided.