of water, chemicals and other raw materials (material costs), as well as energy,
operating labor costs, and also disposal costs.
– Research and development costs (calculated in relation to revenue).
With this information, the NPV was calculated according to Eq. 2:
Total NPV of the project ¼
X n¼t
n¼1
Cash flow in year t Á 1 þ i
ð
Þ
n
1 þ r
ð
Þ
n
ð2Þ
Where “n” is the number of years of analysis, “i” is the inflation rate and “r” the
nominal discount rate. The determination of cash flows was carried out according to
the algorithm shown in Fig. 3.
The pay-back period of a project is defined as the period of time during which a
facility must operate to recover the initial investment, according to the total capital
costs and the estimated annual profits. It was determined by accumulating the
annual profits until an equal value to the capital sum invested was obtained.
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Environmental Performance of H. pluvialis Astaxanthin
The results of the environmental LCA for the astaxanthin production process are
depicted in Fig. 4. According to the results, there is a strong dependence of the
environmental impacts with respect to the production scale. Thus, the total contributions were found to be from 10% up to four times higher for the lab-scale
process than for the semi-pilot system. Regarding the pilot two-stage process, the
semi-pilot system was found to have impacts between 10 and 100 times higher,
whereas the lab process showed contributions between 25 and 122 times above
those of the pilot process. Differences between production scales are mainly linked
to low yields and oversized equipment in the smaller-scale processes. These differences are expected to decrease as the production scale increases, until an
(+) Revenue
(-) Variable operating costs
(-) Overhead costs
(-) Amortization
BENEFITS BEFORE TAXES
(-) Taxes
BENEFITS BEFORE INTERESTS
(-) Interests
NET BENEFIT
(+) Amortization
(-) Investment
NET CASH FLOW RATE
Fig. 3 Algorithm for the
calculation of cash flows in
the determination of the net
present value of a project
Sustainability Assessment of Blue …
481
operating labor costs, and also disposal costs.
– Research and development costs (calculated in relation to revenue).
With this information, the NPV was calculated according to Eq. 2:
Total NPV of the project ¼
X n¼t
n¼1
Cash flow in year t Á 1 þ i
ð
Þ
n
1 þ r
ð
Þ
n
ð2Þ
Where “n” is the number of years of analysis, “i” is the inflation rate and “r” the
nominal discount rate. The determination of cash flows was carried out according to
the algorithm shown in Fig. 3.
The pay-back period of a project is defined as the period of time during which a
facility must operate to recover the initial investment, according to the total capital
costs and the estimated annual profits. It was determined by accumulating the
annual profits until an equal value to the capital sum invested was obtained.
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Environmental Performance of H. pluvialis Astaxanthin
The results of the environmental LCA for the astaxanthin production process are
depicted in Fig. 4. According to the results, there is a strong dependence of the
environmental impacts with respect to the production scale. Thus, the total contributions were found to be from 10% up to four times higher for the lab-scale
process than for the semi-pilot system. Regarding the pilot two-stage process, the
semi-pilot system was found to have impacts between 10 and 100 times higher,
whereas the lab process showed contributions between 25 and 122 times above
those of the pilot process. Differences between production scales are mainly linked
to low yields and oversized equipment in the smaller-scale processes. These differences are expected to decrease as the production scale increases, until an
(+) Revenue
(-) Variable operating costs
(-) Overhead costs
(-) Amortization
BENEFITS BEFORE TAXES
(-) Taxes
BENEFITS BEFORE INTERESTS
(-) Interests
NET BENEFIT
(+) Amortization
(-) Investment
NET CASH FLOW RATE
Fig. 3 Algorithm for the
calculation of cash flows in
the determination of the net
present value of a project
Sustainability Assessment of Blue …
481