%0 Journal Article 
%A Ruiz González, Jesús
%A Olivieri, Giuseppe
%A de Vree, Jeroen
%A Bosma, Rouke
%A Willems, Philippe
%A Reith, J. Hans
%A Eppink, Michel H. M.
%A Kleinegris, Dorinde M. M.
%A Wijffels, René H.
%A Barbosa, Maria J.
%T Towards industrial products from microalgae
%D 2016
%@ 1754-5692
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10498/34160
%X Microalgae show an enormous potential as sustainable feedstock for numerous bioproducts. The
current work analyzes the feasibility of business cases for different markets of products from microalgae. We perform a techno-economic evaluation of the whole process chain including cultivation, biorefinery and market exploitation for a 100 hectares facility in six locations. Our projections show a current cost per unit of dry biomass of 3.4 h kg 1 for microalgae cultivation in Spain (excluding biorefining products), with an expected reduction to 0.5 h kg 1 in ten years. A sensitivity analysis reveals the roadmap to achieve this. Production of high-value products (e.g. pigments) would be currently profitable, with a net present value of 657 Mh in 15 years. Markets aimed at food and chemical commodities require further cost reductions for cost competitiveness, reachable in the next decade.
%~ Universidad de Cádiz