Product, process and net present worth analysis of a palm oil-based beta carotene industry

Product, process and net present worth analysis of a palm oil-based beta carotene industry

Despite having abundant of natural sources of vitamin A, Indonesia currently imports all its need for vitamin A, which amounted to 683 tons in 2018. This paper evaluated possible alternatives and recommended the best scheme to establish a domestic vitamin A industry based on technical, economic and social aspects. Possible natural sources for producing vitamin A were discussed and the best choice was selected. Then, the most suitable vitamin A product and process were designed together with a financial scheme to enable its operation. Our analysis showed that the best ingredient to produce local vitamin A industry is crude palm oil (CPO), processed through extraction using hexane and isopropanol as solvents and HP-20 DIAION as adsorbent, resulting high concentrate beta carotene and light-colored CPO for further palm cooking oil production. The proposed business scheme was to integrate the proposed industry with an existing palm cooking oil industry for a guaranteed raw material supply and further process into palm cooking oil. Investment required in this design was IDR 108.3 billion (USD 7.3 million) for a capacity of 100 kg/day (35 ton/year) with expected 63.6% internal rate of return and 3 years payback period.