Eco-design and evaluation for production of 7-aminocephalosporanic acid from carbohydrate wastes discharged after microalgae-based biodiesel production

The production process of 7-aminocephalosporanic acid (7-ACA) was designed, and green microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris, was used as the raw material for its production. After the oil extraction of C. vulgaris, the waste carbohydrates were utilized by Acremonium chrysogenum M35 as the carbon source to produce cephalosporin C (CPC). An adsorption process using a nonionic resin was designed for the purification of CPC. The resulting CPC was converted to 7-ACA, which was later purified by crystallization. The feasibility of the production process was evaluated by the economics and productivity, and factorial design was used as the statistical investigation of the significance of the factors. The results of the factorial design in this study indicate that the factors such as the carbohydrates quantity and CPC yield in the fermentation were significant for the production of 7-ACA, and the P-IYF (Process for the production of 7-ACA by increasing the fermentation yield) showed the best economic indices except P-SA (Process for the production of 7-ACA by a statistical analysis) among all the designed processes.