Departamento de Tecnologías del Medio Ambiente, Instituto Universitario de Investigaciones Marinas (INMAR), Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR), Universidad de Cádiz, 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain; Alga Development Engineering and Services, S.L., 11500 El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain.
GreenCoLab - Associação Oceano Verde, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Portugal; Necton S.A., Belamandil s/n, 8700-152 Olhão, Portugal.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Sep 1;837:155742. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155742. Epub 2022 May 6.
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).
本技术经济分析旨在确定工业微藻生产工艺的成本，比较不同的操作策略（全年培养 Nannochloropsis oceanica 或交替培养 Phaeodactylum tricornutum 和 Tisochrysis lutea 两种物种）、生产规模（1 公顷和 10 公顷）、收获技术（离心或超滤）和干燥方法（冷冻干燥或喷雾干燥）。本研究基于在葡萄牙南部建立的工业规模工艺。从经济角度看，全年培养 N. oceanica 的策略更具吸引力，生产成本为 53.32 欧元/公斤 DW，1 公顷规模的生产力为 27.61 吨/年，成本降低 49.31%，生产力提高两倍，比交替培养物种的策略更具吸引力。这些结果是针对通过离心（10.65%生物质成本）和冷冻干燥（20.15%生物质成本）收获的生物质得出的。如果采用超滤和喷雾干燥的组合，可以将这些成本降低 7.03%，如果扩大到 10 公顷，可以降低 17.99%，如果使用肥料代替商业营养溶液，可以降低 10.92%。研究表明，对于功能性食品、食品和饲料添加剂、特种水产养殖产品（活饲料富集）和其他高价值应用（如化妆品），该工艺具有潜在的竞争力。
