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a b s t r a c tThe freshwater green microalgal strain Haematococcus pluvialis is the richest source for the production of astaxanthin. Astaxanthin is member of the xanthophyll family of carotenoids and constitutes the highest value product derived by microalgae. So far, algal astaxanthin amounts to b1% of the global market, since the synthetic alternative involves lower production costs. In this study, the technical and economic performance throughout large scale astaxanthin production, for two European cities (Livadeia, Greece and Amsterdam, the Netherlands), is investigated. The techno-economic assessment was facilitated by creating a theoretical process model, which simulated all phases of the production process. A hybrid system for photoautotrophic cultivation comprised by a photobioreactor (PBR) fence and a raceway pond complex was assumed for the 'green' and the 'red stage' respectively. The area covered by each cultivation system was assumed as 1 ha. The technical part included the massenergy flows associated with the production process. The most important mass inflow refers to freshwater. More specifically, 63,526 m 3 /year and 23,793 m 3 /year are needed for the production of 426 kg/year and 143 kg/year astaxanthin in Livadeia and Amsterdam respectively. Regarding total energy needs, they were calculated at 751.2 MWh/year and 396.5 MWh/year for the Greek and the Dutch city respectively. With respect to the economic performance, a Profit and Loss (P&L) analysis was conducted applying three scenarios (worst-, base-and best case). Determining CAPEX and annual OPEX, the return of investment (ROI) for different market prices of astaxanthin was calculated. It was found that only in Livadeia high economic viability can be achieved for all market prices. The costs per kilogram of natural astaxanthin for Livadeia and Amsterdam were calculated at €1536/ kg ASTAX and €6403/kg ASTAX respectively (best case scenario), rendering natural astaxanthin unable to compete with the synthetic alternative (€880/kg ASTAX ) yet, at least for feeding purposes.

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Materials are everywhere and have determined society. The rapid increase in consumption of materials has led to an increase in the use of energy and release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing emissions in material-producing industries is a key challenge. If all of industry switched to current best practices, the energy-efficiency improvement potential would be between 20% and 35% for most sectors. While these are considerable potentials, especially for sectors that have historically paid a lot of attention to energy-efficiency improvement, realization of these potentials under current 'business as usual' conditions is slow due to a large variety of barriers and limited efforts by industry and governments around the world. Importantly, the potentials are not sufficient to achieve the deep reductions in carbon emissions that will be necessary to stay within the climate boundaries as agreed in the 2015 Paris Conference of Parties. Other opportunities need to be included in the menu of options to mitigate GHG emissions. It is essential to develop integrated policies combining energy efficiency, renewable energy material efficiency and material demand reduction, offering the most economically attractive way to realize deep reductions in carbon emissions.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.