Techno-economic assessment of protein produced from electrical energy

Abstract

Food is primary need for everyone and in the near future this need will increase since the growth of people and the resources will be changing. These days a lot of food development projects to tackle huge food demand in the future and supporting the sustainability perspectives. Developing protein production from various resources is one example of that which is in this case, single cell protein development. Single cell protein development is implementing power-to-X technologies approaches. The implementation of power-to- X technologies in the scope of food development could be beneficial part in the future since the used of energy could support sustainability focused. However, for applying this approach, techno-economic analysis should be utilized before applying this innovation into big market. The production cost is determined by calculating mass and energy balance, LCOE formula and the costs of other parameters such as material and electricity among others, before conducting the techno-economic assessments by utilizing widely accepted calculation model. The assessment shows three important parameters which are affecting the production cost such as electricity price, CO2 price, and efficiency of electricity to biomass. By utilizing some scenarios for the analysis, the result shows there is some difference in production cost. This research could be the base model for future research of developing power-to-X technologies in the scope of food innovation project especially for protein production in the near future.