Profitability of Chemically Cross-Linked Collagen Scaffold Production Using Bovine Pericardium: Revaluing Waste from the Meat Industry for Biomedical Applications.

The meat industry generates a large amount of waste that can be used to create useful products such as bio-implants, which are usually expensive. In this report, we present an economic analysis of a continuous process for large-scale chemically cross-linked collagen scaffold (CCLCS) production in a Mexican context. For this purpose, three production capacities were simulated using SuperPro Designer® v 12.0: 5, 15, and 25 × 103 bovine pericardium units (BPU) per month as process feedstock. Data indicated that these capacities produced 2.5, 7.5, and 12.5 kg of biomesh per batch (per day), respectively. In addition, Net Unit Production Costs (NUPC) of 784.57, 458.94, and 388.26 $USD.kg-1 were obtained, correspondingly, with selling prices of 0.16 ± 0.078 USD.cm-2, 0.086 ± 0.043 USD.cm-2, and 0.069 ± 0.035 USD.cm-2, in the same order. We found that these selling prices were significantly lower than those in the current market in Mexico. Finally, distribution of costs associated with the process followed the order: raw materials > facility-dependent > labor > royalties > quality analysis/quality control (QA/QC) > utilities. The present study showed the feasibility of producing low-cost and highly profitable CCLCS with a relatively small investment. As a result, the circular bioeconomy may be stimulated.

Energy potential of agricultural residues generated in Mexico and their use for butanol and electricity production under a biorefinery configuration.

In this article, the geographical location and availability of the most important crop residues generated in Mexico over the last 10 years (2008-2017) were determined. This study estimates the gross number of residues for the four most important cultivars in Mexico named conventional residues (CRs) such as corn, wheat, sorghum, and barley, and estimates were also made for regionally important crops identified as nonconventional residues (NCRs) such as coffee, sugarcane, and beans. The total and sustainable energy potentials (TEP and SEP) for agricultural residues were calculated, in similar way the butanol and electricity production potentials were also calculated if these residues were processed under a nonconventional biorefinery scheme; the calculated availability of crop residues was 59,059,666 t/year, thus demonstrating that Mexico could have great potential for bioenergy production. The estimated TEP was 1,787,241,249 PJ/year, and the SEP was 78,724,689 PJ/year. The production of butanol and its production cost were calculated for the main crop residues; the butanol volume ranged from 7348 to 161,610 t/day, and the volume of crops of regional importance ranged from 6461.9 to 151,389 t/day. The minimum butanol production cost was 2000 t/day of feedstock. The surplus electricity was determined for all crop residues.