Browsing by Author "Barbosa, Maria"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Fucoxanthin production from Tisochrysis lutea and Phaeodactylum tricornutum at industrial scalePublication . Pereira, Hugo; Sá, Marta; Maia, Inês Beatriz; Rodrigues, Alexandre; Teles, Iago; Wijffels, Rene H.; Navalho, João; Barbosa, MariaFucoxanthin is a xanthophyll carotenoid with high market value. Currently, seaweeds are the primary source for fucoxanthin industrial production. However, marine microalgae reach 5 to 10 times higher concentrations (2.24 to 26.6 mg g-1 DW) and are considered a promising feedstock. In this work, two marine microalgae were produced at industrial scale to evaluate biomass and fucoxanthin production: Phaeodactylum tricornutum for autumn/winter and Tisochrysis lutea for spring/summer. Both strains were grown in 15 m3 tubular flow-through photobioreactors; for 170 consecutive days of semi-continuous cultivation regime. The average volumetric biomass productivities of P. tricornutum and T. lutea were 0.11 and 0.09 g DW L-1 day-1. P. tricornutum reached higher maximum biomass concentration (2.87 g DW L-1) than T. lutea (1.47 g DW L-1). P. tricornutum fucoxanthin content ranged between 0.2 and 0.7% DW, while T. lutea between 0.2 and 0.6% DW. The fucoxanthin content was correlated with the irradiation (MJ m-2) and biomass concentration in the photobioreactor (g L-1). This is the first work in literature reporting a long-term industrial production of T. lutea. Overall, we showed possible scenarios for fucoxanthin production from microalgae, increasing the window to supply the industry with steady production throughout the year.
- Techno-economic assessment of microalgae production, harvesting and drying for food, feed, cosmetics, and agriculturePublication . Vázquez-Romero, Bárbara; Perales, José Antonio; Pereira, Hugo; Barbosa, Maria; Ruiz, JesúsThe 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), har -vesting 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 euro/kg DW anda productiv-ity of 27.61 t/y for a scale of 1 ha, a 49.31% lower cost and two-fold productivity than species alternation culture strat-egy. 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 prod-ucts (live feed enrichment) and other high value applications (e.g., cosmetics).