Techno-economic evaluation of pulsed electric field technology in polyphenol extraction from red grape pomace

This study presents a techno-economic analysis of incorporating Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) technology as a pretreatment in Solid-Liquid Extraction (SLE) process to recover polyphenols from red grape pomace using hydroalcoholic solvents. Using SuperPro Designer software, five scenarios were analyzed: a baseline SLE process at optimal conditions without PEF (SLE-01), a PEF-assisted SLE process optimized for higher yield (PEF-02), and three PEF pretreatment scenarios designed to match the yield of SLE-01 while operating at milder conditions-lower extraction temperature (PEF-03), reduced processing time (PEF-04), and lower ethanol concentration (PEF-05). The production scale for SLE-01 was established through a scale-up procedure, targeting 22 kg/ batch of antioxidant extracts (168 t/year) to minimize unit production costs (UPC). Economic analysis revealed that PEF-02 was the most cost-effective option when the product price was below 249 $/kg. At a product price of 233 $/kg-derived from a pure total polyphenol content (TPC) price of 500 $/kg-PEF-02 reduced UPC by 2.72 % and increased return on investment (ROI) by 8.11 % compared to SLE-01. The SLE-01 scenario remained favorable only for product prices >= 250 $/kg. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses using Monte Carlo simulations in Oracle Crystal Ball software indicated a 28.51 % probability of achieving a 17.19 % ROI in PEF-02. Key factors influencing ROI included TPC price (+48.2 %), ethanol concentration in solvent (+31.1 %), ethanol price (-8.5 %), and solid-to-liquid ratio (+4.9 %). These findings highlight PEF as a promising technology for improving yield and cost-effectiveness in polyphenol extraction.