Sustainable valorization of date waste to renewable fuels and chemicals: Data-driven biorefinery analysis and techno-economic insight

This review synthesizes advances in biorefining processes for the conversion of date waste to fuels and chemicals. With over 120 million date palm trees worldwide, about 12 million tons of waste are generated annually. This volume is capable of producing substantial amounts of biofuels and chemical platforms with eventual utility-scale energy production. A data-driven techno-economic analysis was carried out using literature-reported experimental datasets for an assumed plant capacity of 20,000 tons per year. The economic viability analysis indicates that bioethanol production at such plant capacity is uneconomical, although the profitability increases considerably with larger capacities due to economies of scale. Conversely, using the scale, production of biogas was more feasible, manifesting higher yield and lower operating costs. Therefore, this review provides an insight into the economic potential of date waste valorization to biofuels, and offers recommendations for overcoming scale-up barriers and market expansion of date waste to fuels and chemicals.