Techno-Economic Analysis of Lycopene Production from Tomato Waste Using the Pervaporation Process

This study explores the economic feasibility of producing lycopene from overproduced tomato waste in the Nagpur region of Maharashtra, India. While our previous work demonstrated lab-scale lycopene extraction using the pervaporation process, scaling up necessitates an economic evaluation. Therefore, this paper assesses the economic viability of pervaporative lycopene extraction from overproduced tomato waste. The economic analysis was conducted for a pervaporative extraction plant with a 100 kg per batch capacity, processing 500 batches per year. We utilized SuperPro Designer software to facilitate this approach. The economic evaluation reveals a payback time of 1.44 years with a total capital investment of US$2.9 million. This investment yields a net present value of US$16.2 million. Sensitivity analysis shows that the frequency of membrane replacement in the pervaporation process impacts the unit production cost of lycopene by 22.5%. Enhancing the durability of the pervaporative membrane can improve the project's profitability, followed by optimizing plant capacity and solvent recycling. This preliminary techno-economic study lays the foundation for the practical implementation of an integrated facility that upgrades overproduced tomato waste streams, supporting the concept of a circular economy.