Waste discharge can create valuable by-products

Citric acid is the most widely used organic acid with applications in food, beverage, pharmaceuticals and detergents. Its production by Belgian company Citrique Belge is a good example of the efficient use of by-products that would otherwise be discarded.

Citrique Belge uses molasses, a by-product of the sugar refining process, as a raw material for the production of citric acid crystals. By isolating the citric acid from the fermentation broth the company obtains 265,000 tons of various byproducts annually, which are then sold to other industries as raw materials. Mycelium and Citrocol, for example, are used for animal feed, white gypsum is used in fertiliser and mushroom compost, and syngenite is used in the fertiliser production.