RT journal article
T1 Techno-economic assessment of microalgae production, harvesting and drying for food, feed, cosmetics, and agriculture.
A1 Vázquez Romero, Bárbara
A1 Perales Vargas-Machuca, José Antonio
A1 Pereira, Hugo
A1 Barbosa, Maria J.
A1 Ruiz González, Jesús
A2 Tecnologías del Medio Ambiente
K1 Microalgae
K1 Production cost
K1 Industrial scale
K1 Tubular photobioreactor
K1 Cost analysis
AB The objective of this techno-economic analysis is to define the costs for an industrial microalgae production process, comparing different operation strategies (Nannochloropsis oceanica cultivation during the whole year or cultivation of two species, where Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Tisochrysis lutea alternate), production scales (1 and 10 ha), harvesting technologies (centrifugation or ultrafiltration) and drying methods (freeze-drying or spray drying). This study is based on an industrial scale process established in the south of Portugal. The strategy of cultivating N. oceanica all year round is more attractive from an economic perspective, with production costs of 53.32 /kg DW and a productivity of 27.61 t/y for a scale of 1 ha, a 49.31% lower cost and two-fold productivity than species alternation culture strategy. These results are for biomass harvested by centrifugation (10.65% biomass cost) and freeze-drying (20.15% biomass cost). These costs could be reduced by 7.03% using a combination of ultrafiltration and spray drying, up to 17.99% if expanded to 10 ha and 10.92% if fertilisers were used instead of commercial nutrient solutions. The study shows potentially competitive costs for functional foods, food, and feed additives, specialised aquaculture products (live feed enrichment) and other high value applications (e.g., cosmetics).
PB ELSEVIER
SN 1879-1026
YR 2022
FD 2022-09
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26946
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26946
LA eng
NO This research was funded by the project ‘Microalgae As a Green sourceof Nutritional Ingredients for Food/Feed and Ingredients for Cosmetics by cost-Effective New Technologies’ (MAGNIFICENT), funded by the BiobasedIndustries Joint Technology Initiative under the EU Horizon 2020Research and Innovation Program (project 745754).This work has also been carried out with the support of a Pre-doctoralContract for Research Staff for Industrial Theses (220-2017) financed bythe University of Cadiz and the company Algades (Alga Development, Engineeringand Services, SSL).
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026