Economic and environmental analysis of producing soy protein-cellulose-based bionanocomposite fruit coating

Food waste especially for perishable fruit is highly problematic for a global society that continues to grow in population. Coating fruit is one such approach to minimize waste. To assess economic and environmental risks and opportunities of a novel fruit-coating solution before industrial deployment is pursued, an industrial-scale process model was developed based on an optimized experimental process to produce soy protein isolate-cellulose nanocrystal bionanocomposite coating for perishable fruits (avocado for this study). Techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment were carried out to understand the financial viability and the environmental performance of the soy protein isolate-cellulose nanocrystal fruit coating solution production process at the commercial scale. The estimated minimum selling price of soy protein isolate-cellulose nanocrystal fruit coating solution was $0.59/kg, which is competitive with existing fruit coating solutions (e.g., solvent-based wax). The minimum cost of applying a coating to avocado fruit was approximately $0.01/fruit. A sensitivity analysis indicated that the estimated economic outcomes were still favorable, even when raw material costs, tax rate, and project's lifetime were varied by ±50%, with soy protein isolate costs having the largest impact on the estimated measures of profitability. The cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment results indicated that an industrial-scale soy protein isolate-cellulose nanocrystal fruit coating solution production process estimates a carbon footprint of 0.33 kg CO2 eq/kg of solution produced which is higher than the water-based wax solution and lower than the solvent-based wax solution.