Natural pigment indigoidine production: process design, simulation, and techno-economic assessment

Abstract Natural pigment production represents an innovative and sustainable alternative to synthetic pigments. However, its industrial production to meet the global demand for pigments poses technological and economic challenges. In this work, a process design and simulation were conducted using SuperPro Designer to produce a blue natural pigment known as indigoidine, which is in high demand as a natural alternative to synthetic blue dyes in industries. The process design included upstream, bioreaction, and downstream processing to produce 113 tons per year of dry indigoidine. For the conception and design of the bioprocess, experimental data reported in the literature, such as kinetic and stoichiometric parameters, culture media, feeding strategy, and volumetric power input, were taken into account. The economic and profitability indicators of four scenarios were assessed based on a base scenario, which involved changing the typical stirred tank reactor to an airlift reactor, decreasing indigoidine recovery, and reducing biomass production. It was estimated that the use of an airlift reactor significantly improves the profitability of the bioprocess, while a 50 % decrease in biomass concentration (less than 40 g/L) significantly affected the profitability of the process. Finally, an equilibrium production point of around 56 tons per year was determined to balance total revenues with operational costs. This is the first work that offers valuable insights into the scaling-up of natural pigment indigoidine production using bacteria.