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Outdoor cultivation of microalgae in a coal-fired power plant for conversion of flue gas CO2 into microalgal direct combustion fuels

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Abstract

Microalgae have piqued renewed interest as a sustainable biofuel feedstock owing to their high CO2 conversion efficiency. However, the major limitation of microalga-based biofuel production is low productivity. In this study, CO2 in flue gas emitted from the coal-fired power plants was fixed through mass microalgal cultivation using only sunlight as an energy source. To minimize the cost and energy required to supply the flue gas and efficiently utilize the microalgal biomass, a polycarbonate (PC) greenhouse and polymeric photobioreactors were installed near the power plant stack. Four different microalgal strains (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Chlorella sorokiniana, Neochloris oleoabundans, and Neochloris oleoabundans #13) were subjected to semi-continuous culturing for 1 month. The maximum biomass productivity was achieved by the N. oleoabundans #13 strain (0.703 g L−1 day−1). Additionally, polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that the individual microalgal culture was not cross-contaminated with other microalgal cultures in this cultivation system, owing to the structural properties of photobioreactor comprising individual modules. The lipid content and calorific productivity of N. oleoabundans #13 biomass were 45.70% and 3.553 kJ L−1 day−1, respectively, which indicate satisfactory performance of biomass as a direct combustion fuel. The CO2 fixation rate, which was calculated based on the carbon content in the biomass, was 0.309 g CO2 L−1 day−1. Therefore, large amounts of CO2 can be reduced using the large-scale microalgal cultivation system, which enables efficient biological CO2 conversion and maximizes microalgal biomass utilization.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Jong-Kyun You and Dr. Dae Ho Lim at Korea Institute of Energy Research for providing the property data of the flue gas and assisting with the continuous supply of the flue gas.

Funding

This work was supported by the Korea CCS R&D Center (Korea CCS 2020 Project) of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT of Korea [Grant number 2014M1A8A1049278] and the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) Grant funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) [Grant number 20172010202050].

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  1. Young Joon Sung and Jeong Seop Lee contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Korea University, 145, Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea

    Young Joon Sung, Jeong Seop Lee, Hong Ki Yoon & Sang Jun Sim

  2. Korea Western Power Co., Ltd., 285, Jungang-ro, Taean-eup, Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, 32140, Republic of Korea

    Hyunjin Ko

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  1. Young Joon Sung
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Contributions

YJS and JSL prepared and revised the manuscript. YJS and JSL analyzed the data. YJS, JSL, HKY, and HK designed and performed the experiments. SJS supervised the study.

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Correspondence to Sang Jun Sim.

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Sung, Y.J., Lee, J.S., Yoon, H.K. et al. Outdoor cultivation of microalgae in a coal-fired power plant for conversion of flue gas CO2 into microalgal direct combustion fuels. Syst Microbiol and Biomanuf 1, 90–99 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43393-020-00007-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43393-020-00007-7

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