Process development and techno-economic assessment of lycopene extraction from tomatoes using surfactant

Present work involves lycopene extraction from tomato using surfactant L62 and separation of the same using cloud point extraction. The maximum extraction efficiency of lycopene from tomatoes (step I) was 54% (w/w) at optimized conditions (dilution distilled water/tomato puree = 1:1, surfactant concentration = 3% (v/v), temperature = 30 ℃, mixing intensity = 110 rpm, time = 50 min), which is significantly higher than the reported methods employing surfactant based systems. Further concentration of lycopene into the coacervate phase was carried out using CPE. The maximum CPE efficiency (step II) of 96% (w/w) was obtained with 3% L62 (v/v) at a temperature of 85 °C (time 30 min). The present process would eliminate the additional step required for back-extraction of lycopene as L62 is used for external applications in humans. Stability test suggest surfactant (L62) shows protective behavior towards lycopene in surfactant phase against degradation/isomerization for greater time at 30 ℃. The techno-economic study suggests that the project is profitable (NPV = 0.78 million of, discounted payback period of 3.7 years). A life cycle assessment study suggests that using surfactant L62 to extract lycopene from tomatoes has a lower environmental impact than using an organic solvent like acetone.