Techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment of heterotrophic yeast-derived single cell oil production process

•A microbial oil production process is presented and evaluated.•Estimated minimum selling price of SCO from 4 to 6 $/kg SCO.•Estimated GWP in the range of 7.2 to 11.6 kg CO2-eq/kg SCO. The widespread application and utilization of vegetable oils and fats has led to a significant increase of their annual production. Fats and oils are mainly consumed as food and as animal feed, as raw material in the chemical industry and more recently as raw material for biofuel production. In this work the economics of the biochemical production of microbial oil is investigated and the life cycle assessment is performed for first time in the open literature. The production process is simulated using commercial simulators to perform accurate material and energy balances and all necessary data are collected from the open literature. Following the process simulation step a detailed technoeconomic analysis is performed and the fixed capital investment is estimated for a production that varies from 2 to 40 kt of microbial oil per year. Having completed the technoeconomic analysis the Life Cycle Inventory Analysis is performed, and the environmental impacts are estimated, using the comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment methodology.