A Biorefinery Approach for an Integral Valorisation of Avocado Peel and Seeds Through Supercritical Fluids

• Published in: Waste and biomass valorization Vol. 13; no. 9; pp. 3973 - 3988
• Main Authors: Restrepo-Serna, Daissy Lorena, Solarte-Toro, Juan Camilo, Cardona-Alzate, Carlos Ariel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural wastes; Biorefineries; Catechin; Engineering; Environment; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Flavonoids; Industrial Pollution Prevention; Original Paper; Pharmaceutical industry; Phenolic acids; Phenols; Production costs; Profit margins; Quercetin; Refining; Renewable and Green Energy; Residues; Seeds; Supercritical fluids; Waste Management/Waste Technology; Wastes; Avocado waste; Integral biorefinery; Supercritical fluid extraction; Process simulation
• ISSN: 1877-2641; 1877-265X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12649-022-01829-3

Food residues have a high potential for extracting components of interest to humans, such as phenolic acids and flavonoids. For example, two residues are generated while processing fruits such as avocado: seed and peel. Both residues include components of interest, such as quercetin and catechin. These compounds have different applications, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) has shown to be a promising technology for extracting these and other compounds at different scales. However, these extractions usually involve a high amount of residues to be also valorized. This work analyzes the integral valorization of avocado residues through a biorefinery approach and its comparison with stand-alone processes such as SFE. In addition, the biorefinery considered other value-added products. Integral biorefineries of avocado seed and peel allow profit margins of 47.41% and 43.05%, respectively. In contrast, stand-alone processes evidenced profit margins of 21.40% and 21.14%, respectively. These profit margin differences are due to the integral valorization of avocado residues. Under this integral valorization scheme, the production costs of a crude extract of avocado seed and peel correspond to 5.26 USD/kg and 3.99 USD/kg, respectively. This value is low compared with a production cost of 7.86 USD/kg and 5.52 USD/kg for stand-alone processes for the seed and peel of avocado, respectively. These results show how the integral valorization of wastes (in this case, avocado wastes) leads to a decrease in production costs and an increase in the profit margins of the process. Graphical abstract