Improvement in cost‐effectiveness for biopesticide production upon fortification of soybean medium to starch industry wastewater

Abstract The high production cost of Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt ) biopesticides remains a key barrier to large‐scale deployment despite their environmental advantages over chemical pesticides. This study presents an integrated process and techno‐economic evaluation of liquid Bt biopesticide production using starch industry wastewater (SIW) fortified with soybean‐based medium and an adjuvant‐based formulation strategy. This work incorporates experimentally validated pilot‐scale fermentation and formulation data together with detailed formulation mass balance and cost analysis to provide a comprehensive evaluation of an improved production process. Industrial‐scale process simulation and techno‐economic evaluation were performed using SuperPro Designer for a facility producing 1.2 million L per year of formulated Bt . Soybean fortification increased endotoxin titer in fermented broth (436 to 1170 μg mL −1 ) and improved centrifugation recovery (57.76 to 61.2%), resulting in higher formulation productivity (1773 vs. 4259 L per batch) at a target potency of 21.2 Billion International Units (BIU) L −1 and suitable spray viscosity (~150 mPa.s). The formulated product incorporated buffering, UV‐protective/adhesive, and preservative adjuvants, which were explicitly included in the formulation mass balance and cost estimation. The resulting unit production cost was estimated at 2.42 USD L −1 , significantly lower than the SIW‐only (3.8 USD L −1 ), while profitability was most sensitive to production scale. The proposed process demonstrates how an industrial wastewater stream can be transformed into a value‐added agricultural bioproduct through process intensification and resource recovery, thereby supporting circular bioeconomy and biorefinery development.