Process design for a novel fungal biomass valorisation approach

The European Union is transitioning towards a circular and low-carbon economy, emphasizing renewable biological resources. This study explores the production of high-value compounds like chitosan from fungal biomass and presents a potential design for a sustainable biorefinery process, contributing to the diversification and optimisation of biomass feedstock utilisation. The process simulation includes dedicated sub-models for each unit operation, based on laboratory data and integrated into a comprehensive process flow sheet using COCO-COFE. The productivity of the simulated plant results in 2 500 tons of triglyceride oils and 1 800 tons of chitosan that can be produced from 15 000 tons of Aspergillus niger. On-site acetic acid production meets 45% of the total plant's demand, significantly reducing the amount of additional acetic acid to be purchased as raw material. Additionally, large-scale enzyme consumption and the substantial heat demand for biomass processing are key economic and environmental factors that need to be central in successful process design.