Utilization of flue gas for cultivation of microalgae Chlorella sp.) in an outdoor open thin-layer photobioreactor (original) (raw)

Viability of Using Flue Gases as Carbon Source for Microalgae Cultivation

Current rates of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere are causing severe impacts on the planet. To reduce, or at least stabilize, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere technological solutions will be needed, such as enhancing biological C-fixation, thus capturing and storing CO2. Following this premise, the capture of carbon content in flue gas emissions (one important anthropogenic source of CO2) would contribute to the decrease of this gas in the atmosphere. In this study we have tested the potential of microalgae to use CO2 from flue gas as source of carbon to produce biomass. We evaluated the growth of four microalgal cultures during direct injection of flue gas. We used both freshwater and marine microalgal cultures. We observed that the four microalgae tested were able to grow using this source of carbon, and that although pH of the cultures decreased in the first hour of flue gas addition, it did not reach inhibitory growth levels. These results show the potential of utilizing this kind of technology to both reduce CO2 emissions, and, at the same time, to produce green biomass with many biotechnological applications. Besides, the use of flue gas as source of carbon makes the whole cultivation process cheaper, contributing to the development of viable, sustainable culturing techniques to the production of microalgae biomass.

Simultaneous flue gas bioremediation and reduction of microalgal biomass production costs

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2009

A flue gas originating from a municipal waste incinerator was used as a source of CO 2 for the cultivation of the microalga Chlorella vulgaris, in order to decrease the biomass production costs and to bioremediate CO 2 simultaneously. The utilization of the flue gas containing 10-13% (v/v) CO 2 and 8-10% (v/v) O 2 for the photobioreactor agitation and CO 2 supply was proven to be convenient. The growth rate of algal cultures on the flue gas was even higher when compared with the control culture supplied by a mixture of pure CO 2 and air (11% (v/v) CO 2 ). Correspondingly, the CO 2 fixation rate was also higher when using the flue gas (4.4 g CO 2 l −1 24 h −1 ) than using the control gas (3.0 g CO 2 l −1 24 h −1 ). The toxicological analysis of the biomass produced using untreated flue gas showed only a slight excess of mercury while all the other compounds (other heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans, and polychlorinated biphenyls) were below the limits required by the European Union foodstuff legislation. Fortunately, extending the flue gas treatment prior to the cultivation unit by a simple granulated activated carbon column led to an efficient absorption of gaseous mercury and to the algal biomass composition compliant with all the foodstuff legislation requirements.

Mixotrophic cultivation of microalgae using industrial flue gases for biodiesel production

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2015

In the present study, an attempt has been made to grow microalgae Scenedesmus quadricauda, Chlorella vulgaris and Botryococcus braunii in mixotropic cultivation mode using two different substrates, i.e. sewage and glucose as organic carbon sources along with flue gas inputs as inorganic carbon source. The experiments were carried out in 500 ml flasks with sewage and glucose-enriched media along with flue gas inputs. The composition of the flue gas was 7 % CO 2 , 210 ppm of NO x and 120 ppm of SO x. The results showed that S. quadricauda grown in glucose-enriched medium yielded higher biomass, lipid and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) (biodiesel) yields of 2.6, 0.63 and 0.3 g/L, respectively. Whereas with sewage, the biomass, lipid and FAME yields of S. quadricauda were 1.9, 0.46, and 0.21 g/L, respectively. The other two species showed closer results as well. The glucose utilization was measured in terms of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) reduction, which was up to 93.75 % by S. quadricauda in the glucose-flue gas medium. In the sewage-flue gas medium, the COD removal was achieved up to 92 % by S. quadricauda. The other nutrients and pollutants from the sewage were removed up to 75 % on an average by the same. Concerning the flue gas treatment studies, S. quadricauda could remove CO 2 up to 85 % from the flue gas when grown in glucose medium and 81 % when grown in sewage. The SO x and NO x concentrations were reduced up to 50 and 62 %, respectively, by S. quadricauda in glucose-flue gas medium. Whereas, in the sewage-flue gas medium, the SO x and NO x concentrations were reduced up to 45 and 50 %, respectively, by the same. The other two species were equally efficient however with little less significant yields and removal percentages. This study laid emphasis on comparing the feasibility in utilization of readily available carbon sources like glucose and inexpensive leftover carbon sources like sewage by microalgae to generate energy coupled with economical remediation of waste. Therefore on an industrial scale, the sewage is more preferable. Because the results obtained in the laboratory demonstrated both sewage and glucose-enriched nutrient medium are equally efficient for algae cultivation with just a slight difference. Essentially, the sewage is cost effective and easily available in large quantities compared to glucose.

Microalgae as a Means for Converting Flue Gas Co 2 Into Biomass with a High Content of Starch

The microalga Chlorella vulgaris grown photoautotrophicaly was used as a biocatalyst, which is able to convert carbon dioxide produced during municipal waste incineration into a valuable biomass. The utilization of the flue gas containing 10-13% (v/v) CO 2 and 8-10% (v/v) O 2 for a photobioreactor agitation and CO 2 supply was proved to be convenient. Using of a simple additional treatment of the flue gas prior to the cultivation enables to produce biomass, which satisfies all the European foodstuff legislation limits for contaminants. However, the attitudes of consumers towards foodstuff produced on waste cannot be neglected; therefore the exploitation of the biomass in the production of bioethanol was also considered. The relative amount of the starch in the biomass of Chlorella vulgaris can be enhanced by appropriate cultivation conditions. When the microalgal cultures were grown under light saturation conditions about 30% of dry weight (DW) presented starch. Limitation by phosph...

Carbon dioxide biofixation and biomass production from flue gas of power plant using microalgae

2012 Second Iranian Conference on Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation, 2012

Nowadays greenhouse gas emission induces environmental problems such as climate change worldwide. According to statistics, atmospheric CO 2 concentration increased from 280 ppm in 1800 to 380 ppm in 2004 and power plants account for 22% of global CO 2 emission. Microalgae have potential for up taking inorganic carbon during photosynthesis. They have advantage in containing high oil content which can be used for biofuel production. The effect of other pollutants such as NOx and SOx gases on these microorganisms growth should be evaluated if power plant effluent gas is sought to be injected into a photobioreactor. Among three evaluated microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris, Dunaliella tertiolecta and Scenedesmus obliqus, higher biomass productivity obtained from C. vulgaris.

Flue Gas CO2 Capture by Microalgae in Photobioreactor: a Sustainable Technology

This paper addresses the development of pilot scale sustainable technology for microalgae capture of CO2 from power plant flue gas in alkaline solutions to produce biodiesel from algal oil. A combination of computer tools for process simulation, economic evaluation, and environmental impact allow sustainable process assessment. Laboratory scale experiments for growth and culture for algae in laboratory photobioreactor are considered. Based on them, CO2 biocapture, biomass harvesting and algal oil extraction are evaluated. Process flowsheet for pilot scale CO2 biocapture from flue gas, growth and separation of biomass, as well as algal oil separation is implemented in SuperProDesigner (R) v8.5 simulator. Solvent is recovered by distillation and recycled. Experiment information allows to setup flowsheet, unit operations and unit procedures mass balance. As semi-batch process is considered, feedstock quantity/ flowrate and processing times are calculated. Process simulation predicts fo...

A review on microalgae to achieve maximal carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation from Industrial flue gases.pdf

Global climate change and atmospheric CO 2 levels are increasing in the last decades mainly due to the rise in anthropogenic emissions. Point source emissions of CO 2 from power plants during industrialized process accounts much for this increase. An attractive approach for offsetting emissions is direct biofixation of CO 2 from flue gas through microalgae. Flue gas is fully utilized as resource to cultivate microalgae in order to moderate anthropogenic effect on our climate and for steer microalgal resource management towards innovative applications of microalgal biomass compounds. Treated and untreated flue gas into current discharge standard contains CO 2 , NO x , SO x , particulate matter, halogen acids and heavy metals. All these compounds are considered to better steer and engineered flue gas-fed microalgal cultures. This review gives an overview of effect on photochemical, physiochemical and hydrodynamic process on the performance of microalgal-CO 2 fixation and biomass production. It is important to select suitable microalgae strains having a high growth rate, high CO 2 fixation ability and being easily cultivated on large scale to gain high biomass yield and valuable byproducts to offset the costs of carbon mitigation.

A Review on Microalgae to Achieve Maximal Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Mitigation from Industrial Flue Gases

Global climate change and atmospheric CO 2 levels are increasing in the last decades mainly due to the rise in anthropogenic emissions. Point source emissions of CO 2 from power plants during industrialized process accounts much for this increase. An attractive approach for offsetting emissions is direct biofixation of CO 2 from flue gas through microalgae. Flue gas is fully utilized as resource to cultivate microalgae in order to moderate anthropogenic effect on our climate and for steer microalgal resource management towards innovative applications of microalgal biomass compounds. Treated and untreated flue gas into current discharge standard contains CO 2 , NO x , SO x , particulate matter, halogen acids and heavy metals. All these compounds are considered to better steer and engineered flue gas-fed microalgal cultures. This review gives an overview of effect on photochemical, physiochemical and hydrodynamic process on the performance of microalgal-CO 2 fixation and biomass production. It is important to select suitable microalgae strains having a high growth rate, high CO 2 fixation ability and being easily cultivated on large scale to gain high biomass yield and valuable by-products to offset the costs of carbon mitigation.

The possibility of using carbon dioxide from biogas in the production of microalgae biomass

2016

The use of biogas originating from the methane ferm entation process is one of the most promising methods for the production of renewable energy. The study aimed to determine the possibilities of using biogas from anaerobic digestion of dairy wastewater to intensify the prod uction of microalgae biomass. The tested culture was Chlorella sp., which originated from the Baltic Algae Culture Collection. The research was conducted in t wo variants to determine the inhibitory effect of hydrogen sulphide on the growt h of microalgae biomass. The results confirmed the possibility of the effici ent use of the carbon dioxide contained in the biogas to increase the productivit y of Chlorella sp. Tests performed in the present research confirmed CO2 rem oval of more than 80% in all variants (with raw biogas, desulfurized biogas, nd with CO2).