(473g) Technical and Economic Feasibility of Producing Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) from Sweet Whey in the Region of Nariño - Colombia.

The sweet whey it’s one of the most common by-products in the dairy industries around the world. Sweet whey contains some of the compounds of the milk like lactose, proteins, or minerals, but due to its high content of water (>93%) it’s discarded as wastewater. For the approach of this residue, there are so many products but one of the most interesting are the galactooligosaccharides (GOS), which are cataloged like prebiotics and can be obtained from the enzymatic transgalactosilation of the sweet whey. In this work, a basic design for the synthesis of GOS from sweet whey is presented, along with an economic feasibility study. For this goal, a market study focused on the sweet whey obtention in Nariño - Colombia, and the GOS market around the world was carried out, this allowed us to determine a production scale with the plant location. Subsequently, a process diagram was proposed, in which the operation conditions were specified, and the mass and energy balances were developed together with the equipment sizing. Finally, an economic feasibility study was made through the individual factors of Lang and equipment quotes, to calculate the capital investment costs (CAPEX), and an estimation of the operational costs (OPEX). The GOS synthesis from sweet whey it’s a viable option when the cost of the whey it’s nearly to 0 USD/kg, however when the cost of the whey increases, the final utility of the project decreases.