Citric Acid Production from Pineapple Waste

through Solid-State Fermentation

E.J. Battung, W.F. Mangaccat, H.A. Talaro

Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering
University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

Abstract
Citric acid is a naturally occurring organic acid widely used in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries as an acidulant
or a mild preservative. It has a worldwide annual demand of about three million tons and a local demand of 22 000 tons. At
present, the local demand in the country is supplied by imports. This study aims to develop an economically feasible and
environment-friendly process flow for the first citric acid plant in the country with an annual capacity of 4400 tons. Pineapple
waste has been chosen as raw material due to its abundance in the country. The process for the plant may be divided into three
parts: raw material preparation, solid state fermentation, and purification. Downstream processes include the use of a new
technology, the Simulated Moving Bed (SMB). The use of SMB was selected because of its reduced waste and water
requirement and higher productivity. The designed plant has total capital investment of 17.4 million USD. It has an attractive
internal rate of return of 20.7 % and a net present value of $15.6 million. It has a simple payback of 4.3 years and a discounted
payback period of 5.3 years.
Keywords: Citric Acid; Pineapple waste; Solid-State Fermentation

1. Introduction

Citric acid is a weak organic acid, naturally occurring in

citrus fruits. It has the chemical formula C 6H8O7 and
chemical name 2-hydroxypropane-1,2,3-tricarboxylic
acid. It exists in two forms: colorless crystals in the
monohydrate form and white crystalline powder in
anhydrous state. It has a refractive index of 1.493 to
1.509 and sinks in water with a specific gravity of
1.5420. It melts at 153C, but decomposes at 175C
before it reaches vapor state. It is freely soluble in water
and has relatively low dissociation constants. It may be
rapidly degraded in sewage works, surface water and
soil. It is also readily biodegradable. It may also be
oxidized by common oxidizing agents such as hydrogen
peroxide. Presently, it is not judged as a potentially
hazardous substance to the environment. (IPCS, 2001)
Citric acid is a natural preservative and a mild acidulant
which makes it useful in various industries. It gives the
characteristic sour taste of beverages and is also used
as flavoring agent in other foods. Citric acid also acts as
an anti-oxidant and bacterial inhabitant. It is also used,
in a much smaller scale, as citrate buffering of whole
blood samples for transfusion. It acts as an
anticoagulant in glucose solution to prevent blood
clotting. (IPCS, 2001) Moreover, it is a strong chelating
agent which it makes it useful in cleaning boilers,
evaporators and other plant equipment. (Majumder, et
al., 2010) Its applications are summarized in Figure 1.
In 2012, global citric acid production was at 2 million
metric tons while demand reached 2.8 million tons. Year
after year, the gap between citric acid demand and
production widens. It was reported in a study of
fermentation
chemical
markets
by
Business
Communications Co. (BCC) that China accounts for 35
40 % of worldwide citric acid production. A local annual
demand of about 22 million tons is currently supplied by
imports. At present, there is no citric acid production

plant in the Philippines. The global supply and demand

and shown in Figure 2.
Conventionally, citric acid is produced industrially
through submerged microbial fermentation of molasses.
(Kumar & Jain, 2008) Submerged fermentation accounts
for about 80 % of the world production of citric acid. It
generally produces higher yields, lower labor costs and
lower risk of contamination. However, it employs more
sophisticated installations and rigorous process control.
It also requires a large volume of waste water and higher
media cost. Fermentation time is normally between five
to twelve days, depending on the process conditions.
(Soccol, Vandenberghe, Pandey, & Rodrigues, 2006)
Surface fermentation or liquid surface culture was the
first to be developed for the industrial production of citric
acid. Small- to medium-scale plants usually employ this
process due to its lower operational skill requirement
and lower installation and energy costs. In this process,
fungus develops as mycelial mat on the surface of the
medium held in shallow trays. The fermentation chamber
which houses the trays is aerated to control the humidity
and temperature. Air entering is passed through a
bacteriological filter in order to maintain the aseptic
condition inside the chamber. Contamination by
penicillia, other aspergilli, yeasts and lactic bacteria is a
problem in surface fermentation. Fermentation generally
takes eight to twelve days. (Soccol, Vandenberghe,
Pandey, & Rodrigues, 2006)
Solid-state fermentation or Koji process is the simplest
method for citric acid production. It was developed in
Japan where raw materials such as rice bran and fruit
wastes were abundant. These were used as carbon
sources for fermentation, an innovative deviation from
the usual sugar molasses. In this process,
microorganisms are cultured in a medium which acts as
physical support and source of nutrients. The medium is
solid and has roughly about 70 % moisture. It is adjusted
to an initial acidic pH of about 4.5 to 6.0 and the

Pharmac
uetical,,
etc
Deterge 10%
nt
20%
Other
food
(preserv
atives,
sour
flavor)
20%

Metric Tons (million)

temperature is maintained at about 28-30C. Under

optimal conditions, solid-state fermentation may be
completed in four days. Different strains of Aspergillus
niger and yeast have been proven to be effective in solidstate fermentation. An advantage of solid-state
fermentation over the other methods is its low sensitivity
to trace elements, which significantly affects submerged
fermentation. This eliminates the need for rigorous pretreatment. Usually, autoclaving is enough to
decontaminate the culture medium. Solid-state
fermentation also opens the possibility of large-scale
citric acid production using fruit wastes as the primary
raw material. (Soccol, Vandenberghe, Pandey, &
Rodrigues, 2006) As this study focuses on the use of
pineapple waste as raw material for citric acid
production, solid-state fermentation is the best choice
for the fermentation process.
Precipitation is the most frequently used downstream
process. Precipitation of calcium citrate (Ca3(C6H5O7)2) is
done by the addition of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), after
which the calcium citrate precipitate is separated from
the fermentation liquor. Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is added to
the filter cake containing calcium citrate to regenerate
citric acid. Precipitation and isolation of calcium sulfate
(CaSO4) precipitate are repeated several times to
remove the readily carbonizable substances (RCS). Anion
and cation exchangers are used to purify the citric acid.
Citric acid is then produced through crystallization and
drying. (Soccol, Vandenberghe, Pandey, & Rodrigues,
2006) Though widely used, this process has some
noticeable disadvantages. It is laborious and it has a
high energy and water requirement. It also produces
large volumes of carbon dioxide and waste liquor, aside
from gypsum, which has little or no commercial value.
(Wu, Peng, Arlt, & Minceva, 2009)
Another way to separate and purify citric acid from the
medium is through liquid-liquid extraction, which
significantly produces less waste. It also eliminates the
need for Ca(OH)2 and H2SO4. The organic chemicals
used are toxic, however, and may not be used in
producing food-grade citric acid.
In the proposed plant, a simulated moving bed (SMB) is
proposed, instead. Packed columns with automatic
valves are used to mimic moving beds in the removal of
RCS. The advantages of SMB technology include
enhanced mass transfer rate resulting in lower eluent
consumption and higher productivity per unit time and
mass. It also reduces solvent requirement to up to 50%.
Furthermore, SMB technology provides good separation
performance even at low selectivity values. (Wu, Peng,
Arlt, & Minceva, 2009)
This paper aims to study the feasibility and profitability
of putting up a plant in the country which produces citric
acid from pineapple waste.

4
3
2

Demand

Supply

0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Figure 2. Global Supply and Demand of Citric Acid

2. The Proposed Plant

Pineapple has the 12th highest production among fruits

worldwide. An estimated average of 70 % is consumed
as fresh pineapple in its country of origin while the rest is
processed, canned or juiced. The Philippines alone
supplied more than 2.3 million tons of the global
pineapple demand. Meanwhile, an estimated third of a
fresh pineapples weight is waste. The main raw material
for the proposed plant is pineapple waste because of the
abundant local supply of pineapple in the country. The
raw material to be used for the plant, the pineapple
waste, is sourced from the Del Monte Pineapple
Plantation which is about 93 km away from the proposed
plant location.
The plants target market is the local food and beverage
industry. The selling price for citric acid is pegged at
1500 US$/ ton, which is approximated by the average
price the Philippines, pays for its imports of citric acid (in
its two forms) in a year from 2004 to 2012.
The plant has an annual production capacity of 4,400
tons. The plant is to be built inside the economic zone in
PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority in the Municipalities of
Tagaloan and Villanueva, Province of Misamis Oriental. It
is a strategic location considering that the neighboring
barangays have seaports and within the economic zone
is the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT). The range of
ambient temperatures (23-32 0C) is ideal for reaction
temperatures.
The utilities plant is outside the scope of the study and
the utility prices have been assumed based on the
current prices in the plant location for the economic
analysis.

3. The Process
Pineapple waste containing about 65 % moisture is first
ground in a double runner mill at an optimum particle size of
2mm. It is then mixed with 3% methanol and 5ppm ferrous
sulfate heptahydrate crystals. This comprise the fermentation
medium. Meanwhile, the microorganism, Aspergillus niger
ACM 4992, is cultured with potato dextrose agar in an
inoculation tank, R-101, an anaerobic bioreactor. The
germination of the microorganism increase with increasing
temperature at a range of 23-30oC and the optimum pH for
the process is at 4.5.

Beverag
es
50%

The A.niger is allowed to react with the fermentation medium

in a reactor for four days through solid-state fermentation at a
temperature controlled within the range of 28-300C. Inside R102, the following reactions occur:

Figure 1. Applications of Citric Acid

2

Breakdown of sucrose to fructose and glucose:

C12H22O11+ H2O-->2C6H12O6
Citric Acid Production:
C6H12O6 + 1.5 O2 --> C6H8O7 + 2H2O
Metabolic Respiration:
C6H12O6 + 6 O2 --> 6CO2 + 6H2O

The proposed plant has a total capital investment (TCI) of US

$ 17.4 M. It can be broken down into a working capital of US
$ 2.6 M and fixed capital of US $ 14.8 M. The method given
by Peters, et al (2nd edition) was used in estimating the
capital investments. The breakdown is given in Table 1.

[1]
[2]
[3]

Weight

The biomass is separated from the solution containing citric

acid, unreacted sugar and other impurities in a rotary drum
vacuum filter. The fermentation broth from the filter is stored
in a buffer tank to make sure that the following downstream
processes may be operated continuously. From the buffer
tank, the fermentation broth loses much of its water when it
undergoes evaporation in a triple-effect evaporator. After this,
it goes through an SMB unit where it is stripped of sugar and
other impurities.

25.8%

3818825.191

Purchased equipment installation

11.6%

1718471.336

Instrumentation and controls

2.3%

343694.2672

Piping

4.1%

611012.0306

Electrical

2.6%

381882.5191

Buildings

6.5%

954706.2978

Yard improvements

3.4%

496447.2749

10.3%

1527530.077

1.6%

229129.5115

Service facilities
Land

Deionized water supplied using four columns packed with

different kinds of resins and heated by a shell-and-tube-heat
exchanger is used as adsorbent in the SMB. The packing
material used is a tertiary poly(4-vinylpyridine, PVP) resin. It is
a uniform, water-insoluble, reticular with weakly acid and
basic functional groups, amphoteric ion-exchange resin
(Peng, 2005). The resin was prepared by the conventional
suspension polymerization technique (Li & K, 1994). The
copolymer structure was modified to obtain the desired
functionality, so that it has a high selectivity to citric acid,
while weakly retaining the impurities (Peng, He, Liu, Yang, &
Zhang, 1998). In order to minimize the pressure drop in the
SMB unit, the resin with particle size of 30050m is used as
packing material in the SMB columns.

Cost, USD

Purchased equipment

Tot al di rec t pl an t c os t
Engineering and supervision
Construction expenses

10081698.5
8.5%

1260212.313

10.1%

1489341.825

Tot al di rec t an d i n di rec t pl an t c os t s

12831252.64

Contractor's fee

4.4%

649200.2825

Contingency

8.8%

1298400.565

Fi xed Capi t al In ves t m en t

The clarified fermentation broth is then cooled and allowed to

crystallize in a forced circulation crystallizer. The temperature
is maintained at 550C to induce the formation of anhydrous
crystals. The crystallized mixture is separated into its
components, crystals and mother liquor in a peeler
centrifuge. The crystals are dried in a rotary drier using
heated air as drying medium, previously heated using steam
in a shell-and-tube-heat exchanger. From here, the dry citric
acid crystals are transported to packaging.

14778853.49

Worki n g c api t al

2596801.13

Tot al c api t al i n ves t m en t

17375654.62

Table 1. Breakdown of Total Capital Investment

The purchased equipment cost accounts for about 40% of the
direct plant cost. It was estimated using approximations given
by Towler, et al. and Peters, et al. The breakdown of the
purchased equipment cost may be seen in Table 2.

4. Optimization Studies
The fungal strain used, the additives tot he substrate and the
operating conditions used were based on a study by Tran, et
al which aimed to check for the operating conditions which
produced the highest yield from pineapple waste. To optimize
the production of citric acid from pineapple waste, several
strains of A. niger were tested. The strains were narrowed
down to three candidates, ACM 4992), ACM 4993 , and ACM
4994. Knowing the strain with the highest yield, the
experiment continued with the optimization of the
fermentation condition and medium composition. The effects
of methanol, pH, culture method, particle size, metal ions,
and time, were considered. Methanol addition contributed to
the increase of citric acid yield with A. niger strains. Methanol
is not used up by the microorganism but it helps with cell
permeability and citric acid excretion. It also suppresses the
production of oxalic acid, a by-product of Krebbs cycle. Iron
(II) ions help reduce trace metals and this in turn stimulates
the production of citric acid. For A. niger ACM 4992 only Fe2+
gave significant increase to the citric acid production, Mn2+
and Mg2+ had no effect, Zn2+ and Cu2+ slightly decreased the
production. (Tran, L.I., & D.A., 1998)

5. Economic Analysis and Profitability Study

3

Equipment

Cost (US $)

Innoculation Tank

16,960.10

Heat Exchanger DI

8,652.36

Blower

13,902.99

Heat Exchanger Air

5,865.17

Deionizer

60,664.50

Crusher

169,767.50

Pre-mixer

416,452.34

Fermentor

1,108,440.00

Filter

360,744.92

Evaporator

142,510.01

SMB

270,675.49

Crystallizer

832.89

Centrifuge

109,457.65

Dryer

1,053.35

Compressor

158,920.58

Raw Materials Storage

158,920.58

392,035.86

Product storage

71,514.26

Buffer Tank

204,806.25

Pumps

146,648.38

$
Cash Flow, USMillions

Cake storage

Total cost
3,818,825.19
Table 2. Purhased Equipment Breakdown
The citric acid will be sold at a price of US $ 1500 per ton, as
dictated by the current citric acid market, while the byproduct, pineapple waste biomass will be sold at a price of US
$ 50 per ton. The price of the biomass was based on the
biomass market with almost the same property as that of the
produced in the plant. This will amount to an annual sales
value of approximately US $ 7.8M. Operating costs include
labor, electricity, raw materials and utilities. The breakdown
of the operating costs is shown in the table below.

Methanol

387.82

FeSO4 7H2O

32.39
11,322.32

Steam (MP)

854,781.36

417,677.87

Site

664.39

(10.00)

9 10

Figure 3. Cumulative Cash Flow for Discounted Payback

The plant has a 10 year IRR of 20.74%, greater than the

minimum acceptable rate of return (MARR) which is 8%, and
a NPV of US $ 12.6 M.

6. Conclusions and Recommendations

It has been determined that the best location for the plant is
in Misamis Oriental, Mindanao. The chosen location is near
the source of raw material and a power plant from where
electricity and steam will be outsourced. The temperature in
Misamis Oriental ranges from 22oC 31oC, which is
convenient as the temperature requirements of the reactor is
within 28-30oC. The plant is also to be built within an
economic zone, PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority.
Based on the market study, the plant will have an annual
target production capacity of 4,400 tons. The beverage and
food industries in the Philippines are the target consumers of
the product.

Miscellaneous
SMB resin

(5.00)

Operating Year

Electricity
Equipment

Utilities
Cooling Water

5.00

(20.00)

Raw Material
154,043.83

10.00

(15.00)

Cost (US $)
Pineapple Waste

15.00

750,905.19

Labor

The process for the plant may be divided into three parts: the
raw material preparation, fermentation, and purification.
Solid-state fermentation has been selected because it has
low sensitivity to trace elements eliminating the need for
rigorous pre-treatment. It also has the shortest fermentation
period among other methods. Downstream processes include
filtration, evaporation, simulated moving bed (SMB)
purification, crystallization, centrifugation, and drying. The
use of SMB technology has been selected because of its
reduced waste and water requirement and higher productivity
per mass and feed and per unit time.

211,855.16
TOTAL
2,401,670.31
Table 3. Operating Costs Breakdown
It is assumed that 70% of the capital will come from bank
loans with an annual interest rate of 8% compounded
annually. The rest is equity. The breakdown of the loan and
equity is based on the usual bank agreements. The bank loan
is to be paid over a period of four years.
The internal rate of return and net present value were
computed on a basis of a lifetime of 10 years. The figure
below shows the payback period of the citric acid plant. It has
a simple payback period of 4.3 years and a discounted
payback period of 5.3 years after the start of operations.

The proposed plant has an internal rate of return of 20.74%,

2.5 times higher than that of the MARR, and a net present
value of $15.6 million or 244 million Php. It has a simple
payback period of 3.7 years and a discounted payback period
of 4.1 years.

7. Main References
7.1. Books and Articles
Euromonitor International. (2012). FRUIT/VEGETABLE
JUICE IN THE PHILIPPINES. Passport , 4-9.
Euromonitor International. (2011). Pineapple Market
Holds Steady in Face of Recession. Euromonitor , 24

Heuz, V., Tran, G., & Giger-Reverdin, S. (2013).

Pineapple by-products. A programme by INRA, CIRAD,
AFZ and FAO.

Soccol, C. R., Vandenberghe, L. P., Pandey, A., &

Rodrigues, C. (2006). New Perspectives for Citric Acid
Production and Application. Food Technol. Biotechnol. ,
141-149.

International Society for Horticultural Sciences. (2010).

Pineapple News. Johor Baru, Malaysia.

Verhoff, F. H. (2005). Citric Acid. In F. Ullmann, Ullmann's

Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. Weinheim: WileyVC.

IPCS. (2001). Citric Acid. Orlando, Florida: International

Programme on Chemical Safety.

Wu, J., Peng, Q., Arlt, W., & Minceva, M. (2009). Recovery
of Citric Acid from Fermentation Broth Using Simulated
Moving Bed Technology. Separation Science and
Technology .

Kumar, A., & Jain, V. K. (2008). Solid state fermentation

studies of citric acid production. African Journal of
Biotechnology , 644-650.
Li, N., & K, L. (1994). Patent No. US5288763;. Porous
polymer beads and their preparation by template
polymerization.

7.2. Internet Sources

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
(1977). Lectures Presented at the Fifth FAO/SIDA
Workshop on Aquatic Pollution in relation to Protection
of Living Resources. Manila,Philippines.

Majumder, L., Khalil, I., Munshi, M. K., Alam, K., Rashid,

H.-O., Begum, R., et al. (2010). Citric Acid Production by
Aspergillus niger Using Molasses and Pumpkin as
Substrates. European Journal of Biological Sciences , 18.

United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database.

(2012). Philippines Yearly Imports in US Dollars - Citric
acid. Retrieved June 17, 2013, from Index Mundi:
http://www.indexmundi.com/trade/imports/?country=p
h&commodity=291814

Peng, Q. (2005). Patent No. CN1733680. Method for

purifying organic acid by separating residual sugars from
organic acid fermentation broth and corresponding
mother liquor of organic acid products.
Peng, Q., He, R., Liu, X., Yang, L., & Zhang, J. (1998).
Function and modification of poly(vinylpyridine) resins.
Jingxi Huagong , 5-9.