Pra-Rancangan Pabrik Gluconic Acid Dari Tebu Melalui Proses Fermentasi Terendam Menggunakan Aspergillus Niger Dengan Kapasitas 40.000 Ton/Tahun

Abstract

Gluconic acid is a versatile chemical widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, construction, textile, and detergent industries. The increasing global demand and Indonesia's dependence on imports indicate the need for domestic production. Therefore, a pre-design of a gluconic acid plant from sugarcane juice using submerged fermentation with Aspergillus niger was carried out. The plant is designed with a production capacity of 40,000 tons/year and is planned to be located in Pasuruan Regency, East Java, considering the availability of sugarcane as the main raw material, supporting infrastructure, and market accessibility. The production process consists of juice extraction, purification, hydrolysis, neutralization, fermentation, filtration, evaporation, and product finishing. Utilities include water treatment, steam generation, cooling water, electricity, compressed air, fuel supply, and waste treatment to support continuous plant operation. Economic evaluation indicates that the project is financially feasible, with an Annual Cash Flow (ACF) of 26%, Pay Out Time (POT) of 3.5 years, Rate of Return (ROR) of 18.79%, Break Even Point (BEP) of 54%, Net Profit of IDR 2.24 trillion/year, and Total Capital Investment (TCI) of IDR 1.79 trillion. Based on the technical and economic evaluations, the proposed gluconic acid plant is considered feasible and has good prospects to reduce import dependency while meeting both domestic and export market demands.