Techno-economic evaluation of an industrial-scale chocolate ice cream production process

Ice cream is a dairy product with refreshing features, pleasing aroma and appearance as a result of the addition of different ingredients. Currently, there is little related documentation related to the economic evaluation of ice cream production plants, and none related to the simulation in SuperPro Designer of this type of process. In this paper, the techno-economic evaluation for an industrial-scale chocolate ice cream production plant was carried out. The production plant was based in Cuba and designed to produce 808 containers of 10 L of ice cream per batch (961,520 L per year). The mass and energy balance, as well as the main profitability and economic indicators of the process, were determined by the application of SuperPro Designer simulator. The Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return and Payback Time of the project were US $ 1,444,000, 24.45% and 4.45 years, respectively. The findings indicated that the chocolate ice cream production plant was feasible under the current economic condition of Cuba. The proposed chocolate ice cream production process begins to be unprofitable from a value of the cow milk unit cost of US $ 1.50/L and from a value of the interest rate of 24.45%.