An Updated Economic Assessment of Moxidectin Treatment Strategies for Onchocerciasis Elimination.

BACKGROUND: Concerns that annual mass administration of ivermectin, the predominant strategy for onchocerciasis control and elimination, may not lead to elimination of parasite transmission (EoT) in all endemic areas have increased interest in alternative treatment strategies. One such strategy is moxidectin. We performed an updated economic assessment of moxidectin- relative to ivermectin-based strategies. METHODS: We investigated annual and biannual community-directed treatment with ivermectin (aCDTI, bCDTI) and moxidectin (aCDTM, bCDTM) with minimal or enhanced coverage (65% or 80% of total population taking the drug, respectively) in intervention-naive areas with 30%, 50%, or 70% microfilarial baseline prevalence (representative of hypo-, meso-, and hyperendemic areas). We compared programmatic delivery costs for the number of treatments achieving 90% probability of EoT (EoT90), calculated with the individual-based stochastic transmission model EPIONCHO-IBM. We used the costs for 40 years of program delivery when EoT90 was not reached earlier. The delivery costs do not include drug costs. RESULTS: aCDTM and bCDTM achieved EoT90 with lower programmatic delivery costs than aCDTI with 1 exception: aCDTM with minimal coverage did not achieve EoT90 in hyperendemic areas within 40 years. With minimal coverage, bCDTI delivery costs as much or more than aCDTM and bCDTM. With enhanced coverage, programmatic delivery costs for aCDTM and bCDTM were lower than for aCDTI and bCDTI. CONCLUSIONS: Moxidectin-based strategies could accelerate progress toward EoT and reduce programmatic delivery costs compared with ivermectin-based strategies. The costs of moxidectin to national programs are needed to quantify whether delivery cost reductions will translate into overall program cost reduction.

Assessment of Potential and Techno-Economic Performance of Solid Sorbent Direct Air Capture with CO2 Storage in Europe.

Direct air capture with CO2 storage (DACCS) is among the carbon dioxide removal (CDR) options, with the largest gap between current deployment and needed upscaling. Here, we present a geospatial analysis of the techno-economic performance of large-scale DACCS deployment in Europe using two performance indicators: CDR costs and potential. Different low-temperature heat DACCS configurations are considered, i.e., coupled to the national power grid, using waste heat and powered by curtailed electricity. Our findings reveal that the CDR potential and costs of DACCS systems are mainly driven by (i) the availability of energy sources, (ii) the location-specific climate conditions, (iii) the price and GHG intensity of electricity, and (iv) the CO2 transport distance to the nearest CO2 storage location. The results further highlight the following key findings: (i) the limited availability of waste heat, with only Sweden potentially compensating nearly 10% of national emissions through CDR, and (ii) the need for considering transport and storage of CO2 in a comprehensive techno-economic assessment of DACCS. Finally, our geospatial analysis reveals substantial differences between regions due to location-specific conditions, i.e., useful information elements and consistent insights that will contribute to assessment and feasibility studies toward effective DACCS implementation.

Prefeasibility analysis of biomass gasification and electrolysis for hydrogen production.

Hydrogen is a key energy vector to accomplishing energy transition and decarbonization goals proposed in the transport and industrial sectors worldwide. In recent years, research has focused on analyzing, designing, and optimizing hydrogen production, searching to improve economic prefeasibility with minimal emissions of polluting gases. Therefore, the techno-economic analysis of hydrogen production by electrolytic and gasification processes becomes relevant since these processes could compete commercially with industrial technologies such as SMR - Steam methane reforming. This work aims to analyze hydrogen production in stand-alone processes and energy-driven biorefineries. The gasification and electrolysis technologies were evaluated experimentally, and the yields obtained were input data for scaling up the processes through simulation tools. Biomass gasification is more cost-effective than electrolytic schemes since the hydrogen production costs were 4.57 USD/kg and 8.30 USD/kg at an annual production rate of 491.6 tons and 38.96 tons, respectively. Instead, the electrolysis process feasibility is strongly influenced by the recycled water rate and the electricity cost. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the temperature, pressure, and current density variability on the hydrogen production rate. The increase in pressure and current density induces parasitic currents while the temperature increases hydrogen production. Although higher hydrogen production rates from gasification, the syngas composition decreases the possibility of being implemented in applications where purity is critical.

Better accounting for long-term health effects in economic assessments: an illustration for air pollution in the Canton of Geneva.

OBJECTIVES: We propose a general framework for estimating long-term health and economic effects that takes into account four time-related aspects. We apply it to a reduction in exposure to air pollution in the Canton of Geneva. STUDY DESIGN: Methodological developments on the evaluation of long-term economic and health benefits, with an empirical illustration. METHODS: We propose a unified framework-the comprehensive impact assessment (CIA)-to assess the long-term effects of morbidity and mortality in health and economic terms. This framework takes full account of four time-related issues: cessation lag, policy/technical implementation timeframe, discounting and time horizon. We compare its results with those obtained from standard quantitative health impact assessment (QHIA) in an empirical illustration involving air pollution reduction in the canton of Geneva. RESULTS: We find that by neglecting time issues, the QHIA estimates greater health and economic benefits than the CIA. The overestimation is about 50% under reasonable assumptions and increases ceteris paribus with the magnitude of the cessation lag and the discount factor. It decreases both with the time horizon and with the implementation timeframe. CONCLUSION: A proper evaluation of long-term health and economic effects is an important issue when they are to be used in cost-benefit analyses, particularly for mortality, which often represents the largest fraction. We recommend using the CIA to calculate more accurate values.

Techno-economic assessment of bioleaching for metallurgical by-products.

This study focused on the economic feasibility of two potential industrial-scale bioleaching technologies for metal recovery from specific metallurgical by-products, mainly basic oxygen steelmaking dust (BOS-D) and goethite. The investigation compared two bioleaching scaling technology configurations, including an aerated bioreactor and an aerated and stirred bioreactor across different scenarios. Results indicated that bioleaching using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans proved financially viable for copper extraction from goethite, particularly when 5% and 10% pulp densities were used in the aerated bioreactor, and when 10% pulp density was used in the aerated and stirred bioreactor. Notably, a net present value (NPV) of $1,275,499k and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 65% for Cu recovery from goethite were achieved over 20-years after project started using the aerated and stirred bioreactor plant with a capital expenditure (CAPEX) of $119,816,550 and an operational expenditure (OPEX) of $5,896,580/year. It is expected that plant will start to make profit after one year of operation. Aerated and stirred bioreactor plant appeared more reliable alternative compared to the aerated bioreactor plant as the plant consists of 12 reactors which can allow better management and operation in small volume with multiple reactors. Despite the limitations, this techno-economic assessment emphasized the significance of selective metal recovery and plant design, and underscored the major expenses associated with the process.

Feasibility study and techno-economic assessment of power-to-gas (P2G) technology based on solid oxide electrolysis (SOE).

Power-to-Gas (P2G) is considered as a promising energy storage technology in a long-time horizon. The rapid growth in the share of intermittent renewables in the energy mix is driving forward research and development in large-scale energy storage. This paper presents a feasibility analysis of a power-to-gas system in terms of various operating points and capacities. The analysis was performed using a system model, which features a solid oxide electrolyzer (SOE), a CO2 separation unit, and a methanation reactor as the key components. For the purposes of the techno-economic assessment (TEA) of the system, the CAPEX/OPEX estimation was performed and the cost structure defined. The model proposed in the study enables system-level optimization, including technical and economic criteria, considering two nominal scales: 10 kW and 40 GW, which corresponds to the nominal capacity of SOE in each case. According to the study, in an SOE-based P2G system, the cost of synthetic natural gas (SNG) production will fall by 15-21% by 2030 and 29-37% by 2050. SNG production would cost 3.15-3.75 EUR2023/kgSNG in 2030 and 2.6-3.0 EUR2023/kgSNG in 2050 for systems with SOE power >10 MW. Generally, product cost reductions occur as a result of material development and large-scale production, which influences the system's CAPEX. According to the research, the technology will break even by 2050. The large-scale power-to-gas system with a total of 40 GW installed capacity delivers a product price of 2.4 EUR2023/kgSNG with the average conversion efficiency of 68%.

Techno-Economic Analysis of the Optimum Configuration for Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Cycles in Concentrating Solar Power Systems.

There is a general agreement among researchers that supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) cycles will be part of the next generation of thermal power plants, especially in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. While certain studies focus on maximizing the efficiency of these cycles in the hope of achieving a reduction in electricity costs, it is important to note that this assumption does not always hold true. This work provides a comprehensive analysis of the differences between minimizing the cost and maximizing the efficiency for the most remarkable sCO2 cycles. The analysis considers the most important physical uncertainties surrounding CSP and sCO2 cycles, such as turbine inlet temperature, ambient temperature, pressure drop and turbomachinery efficiency. Moreover, the uncertainties related to cost are also analyzed, being divided into uncertainties of sCO2 component costs and uncertainties of heating costs. The CSP system with partial cooling (sometimes with reheating and sometimes without it) is the cheapest configuration in the analyzed cases. However, the differences in cost are generally below 5% (and sometimes neglectable), while the differences in efficiency are significantly larger and below 15%. Besides the much lower efficiency of systems with simple cycle, if the heating cost is low enough, their cost could be even lower than the cost of the system with partial cooling. Systems with recompression cycles could also achieve costs below systems with partial cooling if the design's ambient temperature and the pressure drop are low.

Highly Exposed NH2 Edge on Fragmented g-C3 N4 Framework with Integrated Molybdenum Atoms for Catalytic CO2 Cycloaddition: DFT and Techno-Economic Assessment.

This study focuses on the applicability of single-atom Mo-doped graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) nanosheets which are specifically engineered with high surface area (exfoliated GCN), NH2 rich edges, and maximum utilization of isolated atomic Mo for propylene carbonate (PC) production through CO2 cycloaddition of propylene oxide (PO). Various operational parameters are optimized, for example, temperature (130 °C), pressure (20 bar), catalyst (Mo2 GCN), and catalyst mass (0.1 g). Under optimal conditions, 2% Mo-doped GCN (Mo2 GCN) has the highest catalytic performance, especially the turnover frequency (TOF) obtained, 36.4 h-1 is higher than most reported studies. DFT simulations prove the catalytic performance of Mo2 GCN significantly decreases the activation energy barrier for PO ring-opening from 50-60 to 4.903 kcal mol-1 . Coexistence of Lewis acid/base group improves the CO2 cycloaddition performance by the formation of coordination bond between electron-deficient Mo atom with O atom of PO, while NH2 surface group disrupts the stability of CO2 bond by donating electrons into its low-level empty orbital. Steady-state process simulation of the industrial-scale consumes 4.4 ton h-1 of CO2 with PC production of 10.2 ton h-1 . Techno-economic assessment profit from Mo2 GCN is estimated to be 60.39 million USD year-1 at a catalyst loss rate of 0.01 wt% h-1 .

Evaluating Sustainable Development Pathways for Protein- and Peptide-Based Bioadsorbents for Phosphorus Recovery from Wastewater.

Recovering phosphate (P) from point sources such as wastewater effluent is a priority in order to alleviate the impacts of eutrophication and implement a circular economy for an increasingly limited resource. Bioadsorbents featuring P-binding proteins and peptides offer exquisite P specificity and sensitivity for achieving ultralow P concentrations, i.e., <100 µg P L-1, a discharge limit that has been implemented in at least one treatment facility in nine U.S. states. To prioritize research objectives for P recovery in wastewater treatment, we compared the financial and environmental sustainability of protein/peptide bioadsorbents to those of LayneRT anion exchange resin. The baseline scenario (reflecting lab-demonstrated performance at a full-scale implementation) had costs that were 3 orders of magnitude higher than those for typical wastewater treatment. However, scenarios exploring bioadsorbent improvements, including increasing the P-binding capacity per unit volume by using smaller P-selective peptides and nanoparticle base materials and implementing reuse, dramatically decreased median impacts to $1.06 m-3 and 0.001 kg CO2 equiv m-3; these values are in line with current wastewater treatment impacts and lower than the median LayneRT impacts of $4.04 m-3 and 0.19 kg CO2 equiv m-3. While the financial viability of capturing low P concentrations is a challenge, incorporating the externalities of environmental impacts may provide a feasible path forward to motivate ultralow P capture.

Short-term effects of air pollution and noise on emergency hospital admissions in Madrid and economic assessment.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to study the effect of air pollution and noise has on the population in Madrid Community (MAR) in the period 2013-2018, and its economic impact. METHODS: Time series study analysing emergency hospital admissions in the MAR due to all causes (ICD-10: A00-R99), respiratory causes (ICD-10: J00-J99) and circulatory causes (ICD-10: I00-I99) across the period 2013-2018. The main independent variables were mean daily PM2.5, PM10, NO2, 8-h ozone concentrations, and noise. We controlled for meteorological variables, Public Holidays, seasonality, and the trend and autoregressive nature of the series, and fitted generalised linear models with a Poisson regression link to ascertain the relative risks and attributable risks. In addition, we made an economic assessment of these hospitalisations. RESULTS: The following associations were found: NO2 with admissions due to natural (RR: 1.007, 95% CI: 1.004-1.011) and respiratory causes (RR: 1.012, 95% CI: 1.005-1.019); 8-h ozone with admissions due to natural (RR: 1.049, 95% CI: 1.014-1.046) and circulatory causes (RR: 1.088, 95% CI: 1.039-1.140); and diurnal noise (LAeq7-23h) with admissions due to natural (RR: 1.001, 95% CI: 1.001-1.002), respiratory (RR: 1.002, 95% CI: 1.001-1.003) and circulatory causes (RR: 1.003, 95% CI: 1.002-1.005). Every year, a total of 8246 (95% CI: 4580-11,905) natural-cause admissions are attributable to NO2, with an estimated cost of close on €120 million and 5685 (95% CI: 2533-8835) attributed to LAeq7-23h with an estimated cost of close on €82 million. CONCLUSIONS: Nitrogen dioxide, ozone and noise are the main pollutants to which a large number of hospitalisations in the MAR are attributed, and are thus responsible for a marked deterioration in population health and high related economic impact.

Production of sustainable biofuels from microalgae with CO2 bio-sequestration and life cycle assessment.

Due to anthropogenic emissions, there is an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Microalgae are versatile, universal, and photosynthetic microorganisms present in nature. Biological CO2 sequestration using microalgae is a novel concept in CO2 mitigation strategies. In the current review, the difference between carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), and carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is clarified. The current status of CO2 sequestration techniques is discussed, including various methods and a comparative analysis of abiotic and biotic sequestration. Particular focus is given to sequestration methods associated with microalgae, including advantages of CO2 bio-sequestration using microalgae, a summary of microalgae species that tolerate high CO2 concentrations, biochemistry of microalgal CO2 biofixation, and elements influencing the microalgal CO2 sequestration. In addition, this review highlights and summarizes the research efforts made on the production of various biofuels using microalgae. Notably, Chlorella sp. is found to be the most beneficial microalgae, with a sizeable hydrogen (H2) generation capability ranging from 6.1 to 31.2 mL H2/g microalgae, as well as the species of C. salina, C. fusca, Parachlorella kessleri, C. homosphaera, C. vacuolate, C. pyrenoidosa, C. sorokiniana, C. lewinii, and C. protothecoides. Lastly, the technical feasibility and life cycle analysis are analyzed. This comprehensive review will pave the way for promoting more aggressive research on microalgae-based CO2 sequestration.

A Recent Progress in the Leachate Pretreatment Methods Coupled with Anaerobic Digestion for Enhanced Biogas Production: Feasibility, Trends, and Techno-Economic Evaluation.

Landfill leachate (LFL) treatment is a severe challenge due to its highly viscous nature and various complex pollutants. Leachate comprises various toxic pollutants, including inorganic macro/nano components, xenobiotics, dissolved organic matter, heavy metals, and microorganisms responsible for severe environmental pollution. Various treatment procedures are available to achieve better effluent quality levels; however, most of these treatments are nondestructive, so pollutants are merely transported from one phase to another, resulting in secondary contamination. Anaerobic digestion is a promising bioconversion technology for treating leachate while producing renewable, cleaner energy. Because of its high toxicity and low biodegradability, biological approaches necessitate employing other techniques to complement and support the primary process. In this regard, pretreatment technologies have recently attracted researchers' interest in addressing leachate treatment concerns through anaerobic digestion. This review summarizes various LFL pretreatment methods, such as electrochemical, ultrasonic, alkaline, coagulation, nanofiltration, air stripping, adsorption, and photocatalysis, before the anaerobic digestion of leachate. The pretreatment could assist in converting biogas (carbon dioxide to methane) and residual volatile fatty acids to valuable chemicals and fuels and even straight to power generation. However, the selection of pretreatment is a vital step. The techno-economic analysis also suggested the high economic feasibility of integrated-anaerobic digestion. Therefore, with the incorporation of pretreatment and anaerobic digestion, the process could have high economic viability attributed to bioenergy production and cost savings through sustainable leachate management options.

Valorisation of food waste for valuable by-products generation with economic assessment.

This study assessed the techno-economic feasibility of a biorefinery for valuable by-products (mainly hydrogen, ethanol and fertilizer) generation from food waste. The plant was designed to be built in Zhejiang province (China) with a processing capacity of 100 t food waste per day. It was found that the total capital investment (TCI) and annual operation cost (AOC) of the plant were US$ 7625549 and US$ 2432290.7 year-1, respectively. After the tax, US$ 3141867.6 year-1 of net profit could be reached. The payback period (PBP) was 3.5 years at a 7% discount rate. The internal rate of return (IRR) and return on investment (ROI) were 45.54% and 43.88%, respectively. Shutdown condition could happen with the feed of food waste less than 7.84 t day-1 (2587.2 t year-1) for the plant. This work was beneficial for attracting interests and even investment for valuable by-products generation from food waste in large scale.

A review of economic assessments of drought risk reduction approaches in agriculture.

Due to climate change, the frequency and intensity of droughts are expected to increase. To improve resilience to droughts, proactive drought management is essential. Economic assessments are typically included to decide on the drought risk-reducing investments to make. The choice of both methods and scope of economic assessments influences the outcome, and thus the investment choice. This paper aims to identify how comprehensively economic assessments are applied in practice. Through a systematic literature review, 14 actual economic assessments are identified and their methods are evaluated based on seven criteria for economic assessments as derived from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The results show that in practice, economic assessments rarely address all criteria. Applying a limited number of criteria reduces the scope and narrows the approach, possibly leading to the underestimation of drought risk reduction approaches' related benefits. Applying the seven criteria in practice will improve the results of economic assessments of drought risk reduction measures, allowing for optimal investment selection. Based on the different criteria, a Framework for Economic Assessments of Drought Risk-Reducing Applications (FEADRRA) is proposed. Applying the criteria of the framework can support decision-makers in drought risk management and in carrying out the most fitting drought interventions.

Revealing the mechanism of quartz sand seeding in accelerating phosphorus recovery from anaerobic fermentation supernatant through vivianite crystallization.

The recovery of phosphorus (P) through vivianite crystallization offers a promising approach for resource utilization in wastewater treatment plants. However, this process encounters challenges in terms of small product size and low purity. The study aimed to assess the feasibility of using quartz sand as a seed material to enhance P recovery and vivianite crystal characteristics from anaerobic fermentation supernatant. Various factors, including seed dosage, seed size, Fe/P ratio, and pH, were systematically tested in batch experiments to assess their influence. Results demonstrated that the effect of seed enhancement on vivianite crystallization was more pronounced under higher seed dosages, smaller seed sizes, and lower pH or Fe/P ratio. The addition of seeds increased P recovery by 4.43% in the actual anaerobic fermentation supernatant and also augmented the average particle size of the recovered product from 19.57 to 39.28 µm. Moreover, introducing quartz sand as a seed material effectively reduced co-precipitation, leading to a notable 12.5% increase in the purity of the recovered vivianite compared to the non-seeded process. The formation of an ion adsorption layer on the surface of quartz sand facilitated crystal attachment and growth, significantly accelerating the vivianite crystallization rate and enhancing P recovery. The economic analysis focused on chemical costs further affirmed the economic viability of using quartz sand as a seed material for P recovery through vivianite crystallization, which provides valuable insights for future research and engineering applications.

Techno-economic assessment of a novel algal-membrane system versus conventional wastewater treatment and advanced potable reuse processes: Part II.

This study developed a comprehensive techno-economic assessment (TEA) framework to evaluate an innovative algae resource recovery and near zero-liquid discharge potable reuse system (i.e., the main system) in comparison with a conventional potable water reuse system (i.e., the benchmark system). The TEA study aims to estimate the levelized costs of water of individual units and integrated processes including secondary wastewater treatment, advanced water purification for potable reuse, and sludge treatment. This would provide decision-makers valuable information regarding the capital and operational costs of the innovative main system versus a typical potable water reuse treatment train, along with possible routes of cost optimization and improvements for the design of full-scale facilities. The main system consists of (i) a novel algal-based wastewater treatment coupled with a dual forward osmosis and seawater reverse osmosis (Algal FO-SWRO) membranes system for potable water reuse and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to produce bioenergy and subsequent nutrients extraction from the harvested algal biomass. The benchmark system includes (ii) an advanced water purification facility (AWPF) that consists of a conventional activated sludge biological treatment (CAS), microfiltration (MF), brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO), ultraviolet/advanced oxidation process (UV-AOP), and granular activated carbon (GAC), with anaerobic digestion for sludge treatment. Capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX) were calculated for each unit of both systems (i.e., sub-systems). Based on a 76% overall water recovery designed for the benchmark system, the water cost was estimated at $2.03/m3. The highest costs in the benchmark system were found on the CAS and the anaerobic digester, with the UV-AOP combined with GAC for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) quenching as the driving factor in the increased costs of the system. The cost of the main system, based on an overall 88% water recovery, was estimated to be $1.97/m3, with costs mostly driven by the FO and SWRO membranes. With further cost reduction and optimization for FO membranes such as membrane cost, water recovery, and flux, the main system can provide a much more economically viable alternative in its application than a typical benchmark system.

Biomass-based adsorbents for post-combustion CO2 capture: Preparation, performances, modeling, and assessment.

The adsorbents are critical carriers in the process of adsorption-based post-combustion CO2 capture. Biomass-based adsorbents (BAs) are considered to have great potential because of their high efficiency, low cost, and good sustainability. To understand the methods, theories, and technologies of BAs-based CO2 capture, this work analyzes their preparation and activation/modification, influencing factors, mechanisms, thermodynamics/kinetics, regeneration and cycle performances, and the pathway to application. It is found that BAs prepared by pyrolysis, chemical activation, and modification with dual heteroatoms are more conducive to improving adsorption sites. CO2 adsorption capacity positively correlates with elemental C and fixed carbon of feedstocks, but negatively with moisture. The BAs prepared at 550-600 °C have high performance. The specific surface area (SSA) increases as the preparation time increases by 9.4%-93.4%. The adsorption capacity is positively correlated to the SSA (R = 0.880) and microporous volume (R = 0.773). Moreover, it decreases linearly with increasing operating temperature with the slope of -0.6 mmol/(g·°C) but increases exponentially with increasing operating pressure and CO2 concentration with the power of 0.824. The adsorption process includes physical and/or physicochemical adsorption. Freundlich isotherm equation and pseudo-second-order model characterize the adsorption thermodynamics and kinetics more effectively with R2 = 0.985-1.000 and R2 = 0.894-1.000. The quantum chemistry indicates that most BAs modified with non-metallic belong to physisorption. The regeneration of BAs has low energy consumption (<3.44 MJ/kg CO2) and loss rate (<8%). Furthermore, the technical pathway is proposed for application. Finally, the challenges are also presented to facilitate the development of BAs-CO2 capture.

Multicriteria analysis of sewage sludge-based biodiesel production.

There is increasing attention on developing efficient processes including circular economy principles, and obtaining fuels from wastewater treatment feedstocks is among the most promising. As a wastewater treatment byproduct, sewage sludge is a source of lipids that can be converted to biodiesel in a transesterification process. Economic and environmental analysis have been applied to a 60 m3/h sewage sludge plant, exploring 32 process alternatives. Using solvent extraction from wet sewage sludge, the high cost associated with the drying step is skipped. The wet alternatives with low amounts of solvent and acid usage depicted higher performance compared to the dry ones. Incorporating additional extraction stages increases both the financial gains and environmental impacts. As a result, a multicriteria analysis is implemented to ascertain the optimum process based on different priorities. The case with 0.5:1 (v/v) of hexane to biomass ratio, 3-stage extractor, 60 min residence time and pH 4 was the optimum alternative in most criteria.

Process design of a fully integrated continuous biopharmaceutical process using economic and ecological impact assessment.

Continuous biomanufacturing is a promising alternative to current batch operation as it offers benefits in terms of improved productivity, product quality, and reduced footprint. This study aims to build a fully integrated continuous platform for monoclonal antibody (mAb) production incorporating novel technologies (like intensified seed expansion and continuous high cell density perfusion operations, single-pass tangential flow filtration, and single-use technologies) as well as media and buffer preparation steps. Economic assessment is performed on the basis of the total cost of goods (COGs), which is $102.2/g in the base-case scenario with a bioreactor scale of 500 L. E-factor is used as an environmental indicator and the result shows that 4865.6kg of process water and 11.1 kg of consumables are required to produce 1 kg mAbs. After the development and analysis of the benchmark process, scenario analysis is performed to assess the impacts of the bioreactor scale (60-2000 L) and upstream titers (1.12-2.08 g/L) on the process economics as well as on the environmental footprint. With the increase of bioreactor scale and mAb titer, the operating COGs per unit product decrease. Moreover, increasing the mAb titer is more favorable in terms of the ecological impacts. To investigate the production capacity, the upstream production is increased and the downstream bottlenecks are determined. It is found that only the multicolumn chromatographic (MCC) operations become the process bottleneck and the order of the MCC unit operation that becomes the process bottleneck depends on capacity utilization for that step. Finally, a new platform is built with the integration of membrane chromatography and the two designed processes are compared in terms of economic and ecological impacts.

Feasibility of Producing Electricity, Hydrogen, and Chlorine via Reverse Electrodialysis.

Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is a technology to generate electricity from two streams with different salinities. While RED systems have been conventionally used for electricity generation, recent works explored combining RED for production of valuable gases. This work investigates the feasibility of producing hydrogen and chlorine in addition to electricity in an RED stack and identifies potential levers for improvement. A simplified one-dimensional model is adopted to assess the technical and economic feasibility of the process. We notice a strong disparity in typical current densities of RED fed with seawater and river water and that in typical water (or chlor-alkali) electrolysis. This can be partly mitigated by using brine and seawater as RED feeds. Considering such an RED system, we estimate a hydrogen production of 1.37 mol/(m2 h) and an electrical power density of 1.19 W/m2. Although this exceeds previously reported hydrogen production rates in combination with RED, the levelized costs of products are 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than the current market prices at the current state. The levelized costs of products are very sensitive to the membrane price and performance. Hence, going forward, manufacturing thinner and highly selective membranes is required to make the system competitive against the consolidated technologies.