Techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate
Fish as the primary source for the essential n − 3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) cannot cover the global demand for these important nutrients resulting in a supply gap of currently 1.1 million tons of EPA + DHA annually. A further exploitation of natural fish...
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Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt
2021
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ftdatacite:10.25673/58186 2023-05-15T15:32:53+02:00 Techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate Schade, S. Meier, T. 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.25673/58186 https://opendata.uni-halle.de//handle/1981185920/60137 en eng Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY 641 article CreativeWork 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.25673/58186 2022-02-09T13:13:28Z Fish as the primary source for the essential n − 3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) cannot cover the global demand for these important nutrients resulting in a supply gap of currently 1.1 million tons of EPA + DHA annually. A further exploitation of natural fish stocks is linked to great damage to ecosystems. Oleaginous microalgae are a natural source for EPA and DHA and could possibly contribute to closing this gap. The cultivation in photobioreactors (PBR) in a ‘cold-weather’ climate showed that microalgae compare favorably to aquaculture fish. The present study assesses the economic potential of microalgae for food in such system model. Techno-economic assessment was conducted on the basis of a dynamic system model for the cultivation of Nannochloropsis sp. in industrial scale in Central Germany over a time span of 30 years. The net present value (NPV) and return-on-investment (ROI) were obtained for a number of scenarios in which technic and economic parameters were altered. Taking the size of the PBR considered into account, the cultivation of Nannochloropsis sp. yielded a positive NPV of EUR 4.5 million after 30 years which translates to an annualized ROI of 1.87%. The sensitivity analysis overall resulted in annualized ROIs between 1.12 and 2.47%. Major expenditures comprised the PBR infrastructure, maintenance and labor cost. An extended cultivation season by four weeks was responsible for an NPV surplus of almost one third (32%). An increase in the selling price by 15% was responsible for a 47% higher NPV. In comparison with Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) raised in aquaculture, EPA from Nannochloropsis sp. resulted in about halved cultivation costs (− 44 to − 60%). In this study we could show that microalgae from photoautotrophic cultivation not only have the potential to supply humans with essential nutrients, but they are also a lucrative investment, even in a ‘cold-weather’ climate where cultivation cannot take place year round. Article in Journal/Newspaper Atlantic salmon Salmo salar DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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English |
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641 Schade, S. Meier, T. Techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate |
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description |
Fish as the primary source for the essential n − 3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) cannot cover the global demand for these important nutrients resulting in a supply gap of currently 1.1 million tons of EPA + DHA annually. A further exploitation of natural fish stocks is linked to great damage to ecosystems. Oleaginous microalgae are a natural source for EPA and DHA and could possibly contribute to closing this gap. The cultivation in photobioreactors (PBR) in a ‘cold-weather’ climate showed that microalgae compare favorably to aquaculture fish. The present study assesses the economic potential of microalgae for food in such system model. Techno-economic assessment was conducted on the basis of a dynamic system model for the cultivation of Nannochloropsis sp. in industrial scale in Central Germany over a time span of 30 years. The net present value (NPV) and return-on-investment (ROI) were obtained for a number of scenarios in which technic and economic parameters were altered. Taking the size of the PBR considered into account, the cultivation of Nannochloropsis sp. yielded a positive NPV of EUR 4.5 million after 30 years which translates to an annualized ROI of 1.87%. The sensitivity analysis overall resulted in annualized ROIs between 1.12 and 2.47%. Major expenditures comprised the PBR infrastructure, maintenance and labor cost. An extended cultivation season by four weeks was responsible for an NPV surplus of almost one third (32%). An increase in the selling price by 15% was responsible for a 47% higher NPV. In comparison with Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) raised in aquaculture, EPA from Nannochloropsis sp. resulted in about halved cultivation costs (− 44 to − 60%). In this study we could show that microalgae from photoautotrophic cultivation not only have the potential to supply humans with essential nutrients, but they are also a lucrative investment, even in a ‘cold-weather’ climate where cultivation cannot take place year round. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schade, S. Meier, T. |
author_facet |
Schade, S. Meier, T. |
author_sort |
Schade, S. |
title |
Techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate |
title_short |
Techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate |
title_full |
Techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate |
title_fullStr |
Techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate |
title_full_unstemmed |
Techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate |
title_sort |
techno-economic assessment of microalgae cultivation in a tubular photobioreactor for food in a humid continental climate |
publisher |
Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.25673/58186 https://opendata.uni-halle.de//handle/1981185920/60137 |
genre |
Atlantic salmon Salmo salar |
genre_facet |
Atlantic salmon Salmo salar |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.25673/58186 |
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1766363370420699136 |