García-Figueroa, Jesús M.

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Cost analysis of local bioproducts processing plant using microalgae biomass feedstock
(2012) García-Figueroa, Jesús M.; Colucci-Ríos, José; College of Engineering; Suleiman-Rosado, David; Saliceti-Piazza, Lorenzo; Department of Chemical Engineering; Parés-Matos, Elsie I.
The need to produce bioproducts useful for the human wealth derived from microalgae, such as proteins, lipid and carbohydrates is gaining importance in recent years. In spite of the broad availability of technologies for these kinds of processes there are uncertainties regarding the investment required to build a microalgae processing plant in Puerto Rico. To address this issue, economic analysis for five selected process case scenarios able to produce 222 million pounds of microalgae-derived paste per year were performed. Results indicate that operational costs are predominant in our analysis due primarily to the cost of utilities. In addition, the combination of pond site, dewatering, freeze drying and supercritical CO2 extraction were the most effective in terms of investment ($80 million) and operational costs with an annual cost of manufacturing of $0.65/lb for the microalgae paste.