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Integrated Human Practices

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   <img src="" alt="PaperMaking2">
   <figcaption> Ryan and Grace learning how to lay out the sheeets of kombucha onto pieces of cardboard to allow it to dry out. (Photo taken by Angela Yi) </figcaption>

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Financial Analysis

Kraft versus Microbial Manufacturing

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   <img src="" alt="PaperMaking">
   <figcaption> Some team members measuring out and diluting the kombucha solution onto the sheets.</figcaption>

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Kombucha Biomaterials, LLC was who inspired us to do this financial analysis. After going through a paper making session with them, we learned more about the process of making paper out of Kombucha solutions, and thought that it would be a good idea to do a comparison between two different ways of producing cellulose, kraft pulping and microbial manufacturing.

To simplify the analysis, we are making two assumptions here. The first assumption is that the end product of kraft pulping has the same concentration of cellulose with that produced by microbial manufacturing, which makes these two products interchangeable. Secondly, we assume that all cellulose are the same, no matter what it was made from, or what they are used to produce later on. From Table 1, we can see that the unit cost of producing cellulose by using microbio manufacturing is much lower than that of kraft pulping.

	Kraft Pulping	Microbio Manufacturing
Cost per unit	$1500~$2000/ton	$2300/ton

Table 1: The cost per unit for producing cellulose using kraft pulping and microbio manufacturing

From Table 1, we can see that the unit production cost of microbio manufacturing is slightly higher than that of kraft pulping. However, microbial manufacturing doesn’t require a huge physical space, while kraft pulping involves the build of a massive mill which leads to a huge one-time installation cost. Lots of research have been done in order to cut down the cost of microbial manufacturing, giving microbial manufacturing a bright future. This is the reason why our project has an important role in biomanufacturing, as the application of it will be able to reduce the cost of microbial manufacturing by a huge portion, seen in the next part of the comparison between Isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) and quorum sensing used as the induction method.

Besides the financial cost, the environmental impact of different cellulose production methods should also be taken into consideration. However, the focus of this analysis is only on the financial aspect.