Valéria de Carvalho Santos-Ebinuma, Department of Biotechnology, Engineering School of Lorena, University of São Paulo
Fernanda de Oliveira, Santiago Zapata Boada, Rosa Cuéllar-Franca, Silvio Silvério da Silva, Valéria de Carvalho Santos-Ebinuma
COLORANTS: molecules used to impart color, enhance or restore the appearance of products, which
are used extensively in the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and textile industries.
OBJECTIVE
The goal of the study was to produce red colorants (RC) by Talaromyces amestolkiae in bioreactor and to estimate the environmental impacts of this process using life cycle assessment (LCA).
CONCLUSION
The environmental sustainability assessment indicated that the cultivation stage is a major hotspot in the red colorant production process by Talaromyces amestolkiae mainly due to bioprocess time (168 h) and the associated energy requirements.
Future studies: The environmental performance of this process can be further improved by optimizing the duration of the cultivation stage with respect to the yield. The use of low-carbon energy sources could also lead to significant impact reductions and other improvements can be achieved from switching to more sustainable solvents and scaling up, e.g. solvent recycling, heat losses reductions.
January 18th, 2023, 16:10 CET