Information from Jonathan Loraine
Director | Carbonovia
Results of field sampling
Carbonovia made field visits to several banana plantations in late March. This provided a good basic understanding of the operational aspects of banana production. We collected samples of bananas, packing shed wastes and field wastes. Many thanks to the hospitality received from the operations that we visited.
Carbonovia undertook a full compositional analysis of the samples and this confirmed that banana wastes are high moisture, typically 80%. Of the dry mass, a large percentage (typically around 70%) is valuable starches and sugars that can readily feed the Carbonovia process.
The field wastes (pseudostem, leaves etc.) are generally low in easily treated materials and given the difficulties in collecting these materials, they are a secondary target for processing.
One interesting result was that after dumping, the natural process of converting starches to sugars was very slow. Ethylene ripening is potentially viable, but Carbonovia have an alternative hydrolysis process which is both much quicker, and offers the potential to recover valuable ‘green’ carbon dioxide as a byproduct.
Work under way
Carbonovia is currently refining the process flowsheet and identifying key process equipment. Key items include wet mass dewatering press filters, dewatering decanters, fermentation reactors, process water purification, and final product dryers. We have identified experienced suppliers both in Europe and in China, and procurement of pilot scale equipment is underway.
The initial plan is to design and build a laboratory-scale (10 kg/hr. feed rate) pilot plant. From this we will design and build a demonstration plant of around 100 kg/hr. feed rate. This will be skid or container mounted so that it can be deployed in the field. We currently see a commercial scale plant as being in the order of 1,000 kg/hr. feed rate, or larger.
The economics
The protein rich cells are expected to have a value of around A$800 per tonne based on comparing the protein content to that of soy meal. However the cells produced from banana derived sugars also contain valuable lipids (up to 20%) and carotenoids (up to 150 ppm). These could add 50% or more to the value of the product. Carbonovia is commencing small scale feed trials in the next few weeks to help determine the value in poultry feed. Further trials in fish feed (where the carotenoids have particular value) will follow once the 10kg/hour pilot is in place. There is also the potential to earn revenue from byproduct carbon dioxide sales.
Our work to date suggests that a modest scale 10,000 tpa (wet feed rate) Carbonovia plant could produce around 1,000 tpa of protein-rich cells (PRCs), with a market value of A$ 800 – A$1,500 per tonne. A plant could therefore generate revenue of around A$ 800,000 – A$ 1.5 million per annum, with high profit margins. A plant at this scale could cost around A$ 1-2 million, with a quick payback.
Timing
We expect this next stage of work to take 12-18 months, resulting in a 100 kg/hr. demonstration-scale plant, designed to fine tune the engineering and to produce product PRCs for market testing.
What’s next?
We would very much like to build on the introductions made to banana growers, and to meet with additional potential partners. There is real potential to create a profitable new business activity for banana growers, while enhancing ESG credentials. There has also been strong interest from stock feed manufacturers in purchasing such sustainable feed ingredients.
Contact ABGC R&D Manager Dr Rosie Godwin if you’d like to find out more: rosie@abgc.org.au