ABSTRACT
Microalgae are powerful microbial factories that can be exploited for the production of feedstock for feed and aquaculture, biofuels and energy, and high-value molecules. Although microalgae growth has been developed industrially in closed systems such as photobioreactors and in open systems such as open ponds there are still many bottlenecks to overcome to make the cost of the biomass and its products competitive. A techno-economic evaluation and life cycle assessment of holistic biorefinery process developed within the European project VALUEMAG (no. 745695) have been described. Globally, the industrial production of microalgae was evaluated around 12,000 tons in 2018. The cost of microalgae is also still variable on an industrial scale due to several factors such as the productivity, the investment and operational costs that varied according to the size of the system, and due to the incidence on the cost of harvesting. The techno-economic evaluation of the VALUEMAG system have shown a reduction in the cost of production of the microalgae Nannochloropsis gaditana that increased by adding the costs of CO2 supercritical fluid extraction. On the other hand, life cycle assessment demonstrated a positive impact of CO2 supercritical fluid extraction respect to dewatering and cultivation systems.
