INDUSTRIAL-SCALE VALIDATION OF DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGICAL ROUTES FOR OBTAINING PITAYA CONCENTRATE [Hylocereus polyrhizus (Weber) Britton & Rose]

Technology readiness levels are fundamental for measuring the progress of a product's viability and impact on the industrial environment. This study evaluated scalable technological routes for producing pitaya concentrate up to Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL 6). Two routes were scaled up at a juice-processing facility: a simpler route (without fermentation) and a more complex route (with fermentation). Route 1 comprised: Pulping/Refining → Pasteurization → Ultradecantation → Clarification → Concentration. The clarification step used a clarifying centrifuge in Route 1 and tangential microfiltration in Route 2. Route 2 comprised: Pulping/Refining → Pasteurization → Ultradecantation → Fermentation → Clarification → Concentration. Techno-economic and environmental modeling was performed using SuperPro Designer v11.0 and SimaPro v9.5 software, respectively. The initial feed was 2,000 kg of fresh fruit. For betalain analyses in Route 1, concentrations were 122±6.10 mg/100 g, 120±6.00 mg/100 g, 190±9.50 mg/100 g, 175±8.75 mg/100 g, and 1990±99.50 mg/100 g for pulping/refining, pasteurization, ultradecantation, clarification, and concentration, respectively. For Route 2, values were 122±6.10 mg/100 g, 120±6.00 mg/100 g, 190±9.50 mg/100 g, 155±7.75 mg/100 g, 160±8.10 mg/100 g, and 5240±262.20 mg/100 g for pulping/refining, pasteurization, ultradecantation, fermentation, clarification, and vacuum concentration, respectively. Because both concentrates were standardized at 60 °Brix, the approximately 2.5-fold increase in betalains in Route 2 reflects the contribution of fermentation rather than concentration alone. Fermentation drove betalain gains through high sugar consumption (≈50%) and low betalain consumption (≈15%) by the yeast, a behavior expected from prior evidence and validated here under TRL 6 conditions. The scale-up confirmed the practicality of integrating fermentation between ultradecantation and clarification without compromising downstream clarification and concentration performance. For the economic feasibility of a production plant using the studied routes, the estimated capital cost was ≈$2,000,000 (Route 1) and ≈$2,450,000 (Route 2); the gross margin was ≈45% (Route 1) and ≈37% (Route 2); the return on investment (ROI) was ≈40% (Route 1) and ≈35% (Route 2); and the payback period was ≈2.0 years (Route 1) and ≈3.0 years (Route 2). Life-cycle assessment (LCA) considered agricultural inventories and process inputs from the industrial-scale simulation, indicating that agricultural production contributed most to environmental impacts in acidification, climate change, ecotoxicity, and eutrophication categories. Overall, the results support the technical and economic feasibility of producing and industrially scaling pitaya concentrates via different routes, with fermentation offering a compositionally enhanced product at an acceptable cost and environmental profile.