Sustainable Production Of Xylo-Oligosaccharide From Rice Husk: A Techno-Economic And Environmental Performance Assessment

Abstract. Producing xylo-oligosaccharides from rice husks has gained research interest owing to the global attention to prebiotics due to the expanding demands for new food products for human welfare and the predicted rise in investment, making it a lucrative business. A thorough evaluation of the costs for production, environmental performance assessment, and objective decision analysis on the production method to justify the entire RH-to-XOS life cycle is lacking. This deprives future research of guidelines to produce xylo-oligosaccharides. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the techno-economic and environmental possibility of utilizing rice husks to produce xylo-oligosaccharides. We examined the feasibility and environmental implications of two methods of producing xylo-oligosaccharides from rice husks: autohydrolysis and enzymatic hydrolysis. The results revealed that autohydrolysis is the best method to produce xylo-oligosaccharides, considering the damage to the environment and human health, and profitability ($ 99.6M in revenue generated) hence, it is viable to thrive in the market.