Extraction of palm carotene from crude palm oil by solvolytic micellization: economic evaluation and life cycle assessment

Carotenoids are a class of commercially important phytonutrient and they are widely used as natural colorant and antioxidant in food formulation. Crude palm oil (CPO) contains the highest concentration of plant-derived carotenoids but most of them are destroyed during palm oil processing. Among the extraction methods used in the recovery of carotenoids from palm oil, solvolytic micellization is attractive in terms of extraction performance and scalability. However, the environmental and economic performances of solvolytic micellization for industrial-scale extraction of palm-based carotenoids have not been reported. In this study, economic evaluation and life-cycle assessment (LCA) were performed on the extraction of palm carotenes, covering CPO pretreatment, solvolytic micellization, product purification, and solvent recovery. A good profitability of this extraction scheme was demonstrated using a base-case scenario targeting 50000 kg CPO feedstock/day. CPO is the major contributor to the overall operating cost of the extraction scheme. The working capital was significantly lower than operating and capital costs because the extraction process does not involve solid particulate processing. A gate-to-gate LCA framework was performed based on ISO 14040 and eight midpoint impact categories. Global warming potential and fossil fuel scarcity are the two main environmental concerns of this extraction scheme, as majorly contributed by the methanol recovery process. Overall, solvolytic micellization shows good commercialization potential because of its simplicity, scalability, and inexpensive setup.