Heterotrophic vs autotrophic production of microalgae: bringing some light into the everlasting cost controversy
Open accessAbstract
Heterotrophic or autotrophic? This is the continuous question the industry faces when microalgae production is the endeavor. Surprisingly, nowadays specialists have not reached a consensus on which is the most economical option. The current work analyses costs for heterotrophic and autotrophic cultivation of microalgae at an industrial scale. Heterotrophic cultivation of microalgae results in a production cost of 4.00 €·kg−1 of dry weight as a centrifuged paste. This is within the range of autotrophic costs, but still above the production cost in some photobioreactors. The study also identifies the current limitations on the technology and studies the effect on the cost of overcoming these. Once achieved, the advances in the process could result in a heterotrophic production cost reduced to 1.08 €·kg−1. Autotrophic cultivation seems competitive with heterotrophic production. It is time to leap forward in the autotrophic production scale to achieve the critical reduction in production cost.
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Heterotrophic cultivation is a technically robust and increasingly relevant industrial alternative when considering productivity, scalability, and global applicability.
“Even so, when viewed from a broader perspective that considers productivity, scalability, and global applicability, heterotrophic cultivation emerges as a technically robust and increasingly relevant industrial alternative (Ruiz et al., 2022).”
From Microalgae biotechnology and its role in sustainable and healthy food design (2025) · cites this paper as Ruiz et al., 2022
The Introduction reports high heterotrophic productivities, and section 3.1 describes existing large-scale fermenters, supporting its potential as an industrial alternative. But section 3.5 says a substantial improvement is still needed to overcome limits on industrial production and develop a robust strain; it also says autotrophic production predominates worldwide. The paper therefore does not establish that heterotrophic cultivation is already technically robust or increasingly applicable globally. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Ruiz, J., Wijffels, R. H., Dominguez, M., & Barbosa, M. J.
- Affiliations
- Universidad de Cádiz (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Ruiz, Jesús
- ORCID
- Ruiz, Jesús
- Venue
- Algal Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-05
- Volume
- 64
- Pages
- 102698
- ISSN
- 2211-9264 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4224077039
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 8
- FWCI
- 5.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Algal Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RODIN (Universidad de Cádiz) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- H2020 (745754)
- European Research Council
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Aquatic Science › Aquaculture Nutrition and Growth
- Keywords
- microalgae cultivation, heterotrophic cultivation, autotrophic cultivation, production costs, cost analysis, industrial scale, photobioreactors
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