Turning C1-gases to isobutanol towards great environmental and economic sustainability via innovative biological routes: two birds with one stone.

Background: The dramatic increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which causes serious global environmental issues and severe climate changes, has become a global problem of concern in recent decades. Currently, native and/or non-native C1-utilizing microbes have been modified to be able to effectively convert C1-gases (biogas, natural gas, and CO) into isobutanol via biological routes. Even though the current experimental results are satisfactory in lab-scale research, the techno-economic feasibility of C1 gas-derived isobutanol production at the industrial scale still needs to be analyzed and evaluated, which will be essential for the future industrialization of C1-gas bioconversion. Therefore, techno-economic analyses were conducted in this study with comparisons of capital cost (CAPEX), operating cost (OPEX), and minimum isobutanol selling price (MISP) derived from biogas (scenario #1), natural gas (scenario #2), and CO (scenario #3) with systematic economic assessment.

Results: By calculating capital investments and necessary expenses, the highest CAPEX ($317 MM) and OPEX ($67 MM) were projected in scenario #1 and scenario #2, respectively. Because of the lower CAPEX and OPEX from scenario #3, the results revealed that bioconversion of CO into isobutanol temporally exhibited the best economic performance with an MISP of $1.38/kg isobutanol. Furthermore, a single sensitivity analysis with nine different parameters was carried out for the production of CO-derived isobutanol. The annual plant capacity, gas utilization rate, and substrate cost are the three most important economic-driving forces on the MISP of CO-derived isobutanol. Finally, a multiple-point sensitivity analysis considering all five parameters simultaneously was performed using ideal targets, which presented the lowest MISP of $0.99/kg in a long-term case study.

Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the bioconversion of C1-gases into isobutanol in terms of the bioprocess design, mass/energy calculation, capital investment, operating expense, sensitivity analysis, and minimum selling price. Compared with isobutanol derived from biogas and natural gas, the CO-based isobutanol showed better economic feasibility. A market competitive isobutanol derived from CO is predicable with lower CO cost, better isobutanol titer, and higher annual capacity. This study will help researchers and decision-makers explore innovative and effective approaches to neutralizing GHGs and focus on key economic-driving forces to improve techno-economic performance.