The Organofinery: A Green Biorefinery for Animal Feed, Biogas and Fertilizer: An Industrial Scale feasibility Study

Summary in the original language of the document

The OrganoFinery project is a concept of a green biorefinery which aims the utilization of red clover to produce organic protein for animal feed, biogas and fertilizer. It is currently being studied in laboratory and pilot scale but information in terms of large scale implementation and viability is still insufficient. A model was created using the software SuperPro Designer in order to design and study in detail the construction and operation of an industrial scale plant based on the mentioned project. To achieve this, theoretical mass balances were calculated using experimental data and, once designed, an economic assessment was performed to analyse the feasibility of the process. It was concluded that a large scale implementation of this project is economically viable as the estimated profits were higher than the Annual Operating Costs (AOC) and the calculated payback time was 4,14 years. The Return On Investment (ROI) of 24,14% also supported the feasibility of the project. However, the production of biogas had the higher contribution in the estimated profitability, meaning that the creation of a plant only for protein production would not be sustainable.