Advancing early-stage scale-up of fermentative monomers through process simulation: A techno-economic study on glutaric acid

This study evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of fermentative glutaric acid (GA) production, integrating laboratory-scale fermentation data and process simulations. Using SuperPro Designer , we assessed scalability, capital and operating expenditures (CAPEX/OPEX), and downstream processing (DSP) alternatives. At an optimal scale of 26,500 tons/year, GA production costs reached 5.5 USD/kg, below the current market benchmark of 10 USD/kg. Fermentation was the major CAPEX contributor, accounting for ~40 MUSD in equipment cost, reflecting the relatively low titer (90 g/L) compared to citric and itaconic acid benchmarks. OPEX was dominated by raw material costs, with molasses price variation (600–1000 USD/ton) leading to product markups ranging from 5.2 to 3.6 USD/kg. Among DSP strategies, liquid–liquid extraction and evaporation were the most cost-effective, with liquid–liquid extraction reducing costs by ~1 USD/kg compared to pH-based precipitation. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that fermentation titer had a larger economic impact than fermentation time. Overall, the study highlights the central role of feedstock costs and fermentation efficiency in GA industrial feasibility, providing critical insights for future process optimization and pilot-scale validation.