Techno-Economic Analysis of a Plant-Based Intense Natural Sweetener Production for Reduced Global Sugar Consumption

There is currently a worldwide trend to reduce sugar intake due to the various adverse health effects linked with the overconsumption of sugars. Chemically synthesized sweeteners (CSS) have been used as an alternative to nutritive sugars in numerous applications, however, their long-term effects on human health remain controversial. Therefore, there is a shift in consumer preference towards non-nutritive sweeteners from a natural source. Thaumatins is a class of intensely sweet proteins found in arils of the fruits of the West-African plant Thaumatococcus danielli. The current production method through aqueous extraction from this plant limits its supply while the demand is high. Despite successful recombinant expression of the protein in several organisms, no biotechnological production platform has yet been established. In this study, we present a detailed process simulation model for a large-scale, transgenic plant-based production facility for thaumatin II. The model was used to assess how critical process parameters (i.e. the method of plant growth (field or indoor), thaumatin II expression level in the plant tissue, and production capacity) affect certain economic parameters (total capital investment, annual operating cost, and cost of goods sold). For the base case scenario (50 MT thaumatin/year, 1.5 g thaumatin/kg fresh weight, and 80% downstream recovery), our analyses indicate that the total capital investment is $71.5 million dollars and the cost of goods sold is $356/kg including facility dependent costs. Considering a sweetness index range of x2,000-8,600 sweeter than sucrose, depending on the existing sucrose concentration, the application of thaumatin can have a tremendous positive impact on global health, as well as a potential reduced cost of production for sugar-sweetened products.