review · Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Conventional methods for capturing carbon dioxide often suffer from high costs and environmental drawbacks. Microalgae, particularly species within the Chlorella genus, offer a biological alternative by capturing carbon dioxide and converting it into useful biomass. Cellular pathways, notably the carbon concentration mechanism in Chlorella, enable efficient sequestration under managed conditions. However, sequestration efficiency depends heavily on operating parameters, including pretreatment methods, pH levels, temperature, irradiation, dissolved oxygen, nutrient availability, and carbon dioxide sources. Once cultivated, microalgae serve as a versatile feedstock for various bioenergy products, including biohydrogen, biodiesel, bioethanol, bio-oil, and biogas. Tailored cultivation and processing strategies can specifically optimise biohydrogen yields, presenting a pathway to support clean energy generation, carbon credit initiatives, and global climate mitigation goals.
Rising atmospheric greenhouse gases require practical sequestration solutions that avoid the prohibitive costs and ecological risks of mechanical capture systems. Utilising microalgae addresses two global priorities at once: capturing industrial emissions and transforming the captured carbon into clean fuels such as hydrogen. This biological approach offers a path toward meeting climate targets while feeding renewable feedstocks into energy and carbon credit markets.
The findings are relevant to clean fuel producers, bioenergy refiners, and carbon credit project developers seeking biological carbon capture solutions. The primary outputs enabled are renewable biofuels, especially biohydrogen and biodiesel. As a review examining biological mechanisms, controlling parameters, and laboratory optimisation pathways, the technology appears to be at an early stage of development, requiring further pilot-scale testing and operational standardisation before full commercial deployment.
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To address climate change threats to ecosystems and the global economy, sustainable solutions for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) levels are crucial. Existing CO<sub>2</sub> capture projects face challenges like high costs and environmental risks. This review explores leveraging microalgae, specifically the <i>Chlorella</i> genus, for CO<sub>2</sub> capture and conversion into valuable bioenergy products like biohydrogen. The introduction section provides an overview of carbon pathways in microalgal cells and their role in CO<sub>2</sub> capture for biomass production. It discusses current carbon credit industries and projects, highlighting the <i>Chlorella</i> genus's carbon concentration mechanism (CCM) model for efficient CO<sub>2</sub> sequestration. Factors influencing microalgal CO<sub>2</sub> sequestration are examined, including pretreatment, pH, temperature, irradiation, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and sources and concentrations of CO<sub>2</sub>. The review explores microalgae as a feedstock for various bioenergy applications like biodiesel, biooil, bioethanol, biogas and biohydrogen production. Strategies for optimizing biohydrogen yield from <i>Chlorella</i> are highlighted. Outlining the possibilities of further optimizations the review concludes by suggesting that microalgae and <i>Chlorella</i>-based CO<sub>2</sub> capture is promising and offers contributions to achieve global climate goals.
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DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1387519
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