Integrated Multiproduct Facility for the Production of Chemicals, Food, and Utilities from Oranges

An integrated facility for the processing of oranges is designed. The process begins with juice production. From the peel, two pretreatments are considered for the production of limonene, steam explosion and solvent extraction. Next, the waste is digested to produce utilities and fertilizers. The flue gas from the gas turbine can either be used to produce electricity in a regenerative Rankine cycle or as utility for the process. A process systems approach is used to analyse alternative technologies and estimate the economics. The use of steam explosion requires 50% lower production costs but 30% higher investment to treat the waste. The use of hexane consumes 4 times more thermal energy but the processing of the waste requires less digesters. Combined cycles are less profitable. The lower production cost of the steam explosion allows for smaller facilities to become profitable before the ones using hexane limonene recovery.