Production cost of microalgae-biofuel through implementation of raceway pond systems is dominated by the operational cost which includes labour, raw materials, and utilities. In raceway pond system, during the cultivation process, electricity takes up the largest energy fraction of total operational energy requirements. It is used to circulate the microalgae cultures. It takes up an energy fraction ranging from 22% to 79%. In contrast, capital cost dominates the cost of production of microalgae-biofuel in PBRs. This system has a high installation cost though the operational cost is relatively lower than raceway pond systems.
Microalgae-biofuel production costs a larger amount of money compared to fossil fuel production. The cost estimation of producing microalgae-biofuel is around , which is considerably more expensive than conventional gasoline. However, when compared with electrification of the vehicle fleet – a key advantage of such biofuel is the avoidance of the costly distribution of large amounts of electrical energy (as is required to convert existing vehicle fleets to battery electric technology), therein allowing for the re-use of the existing liquid-fuel transportation infrastructure. Biofuel such as ethanol is also greatly more energy dense than current battery technologies (approximately 6x as much) further promoting its economic viability.