Abstract
In North Colombia, avocado production corresponds to approximately 35,000 t/y, and a significant part of such production is waste because of the species vulnerability to climate changes, and the lack of processing infrastructure causes delays and fruit degradation. The content of oil in avocado (21-30 %) has motivated the search for alternatives of waste valorization that may improve the sustainability of the processing chain. In this sense, it is necessary to evaluate the feasibility of large-scale production of avocado oil under North-Colombian conditions under sustainability criteria. In this work, simulation of the avocado-to-oil linear production chain was performed by the Aspen Plus software, to predict the performance of the avocado pulp harvesting route on an industrial scale. Afterward, the computer-aided environmental evaluation of the process attended to using the waste reduction algorithm (WAR) via WARGUI software. The potential Environmental impacts generated and output from each process was quantified under the atmospheric and toxicological categories. Results showed low values for output of PEI (94.8 total PEI/h) and negative values for generation of PEI for some cases. These results suggested that the linear production chain to convert avocado into oil is environmentally friendly and features a promising alternative for waste valorization.
