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Screening and application of Chlorella strains on biosequestration of the power plant exhaust gas evolutions of biomass growth and accumulation of toxic agents

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Abstract

To use microalgae for the biosequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from the coal-fired power plants, the screening of high CO2 tolerant microalgae and their accumulation of toxic agents have attracted significant research attention. This study evaluated 10 Chlorella strains for high CO2 tolerance using combined growth rates and growth periods subjected to logistic parameters. We selected LAMB 31 with high r (0.89 ± 0.10 day−1), high k (6.51 ± 0.19), and medium Tp (5.17 ± 0.15 day) as a candidate for CO2 biosequestration. Correspondingly, six genes involving carbon fixation and metabolism processes were upregulated in LAMB 31 under high CO2 conditions, verifying its high CO2 tolerant ability. LAMB 31 cultures exposed to exhaust gas of power plant under different flow rates grew well, but the high flow rate (0.6 L/h) showed inhibition effects compared with low flow rates (0.2 and 0.3 L/h) at the end of the culturing period. The toxic agents in the exhaust gas including sulfur, arsenic, and mercury accumulated in LAMB 31 biomass but were deemed safe for use in the production of both human food and animal feed based on the National Food Safety Standard in China. This study showed a complete process involving high CO2 tolerant microalgae screening, high CO2 tolerant verification, and in situ application in a power plant. Data results provide valuable information as the basis for future research studies in microalgae application on CO2 mitigation at emission sources.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance of Qianqian Zhao in measuring the OD values.

Funding

This research work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB0601001) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41706124).

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Author notes

  1. Yan Zhao and Jun Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Marine Life Sciences, Department of Marine Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Yan Zhao & Jun Li

  2. Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Yan Zhao

  3. Key Laboratory of Mariculture, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, No. 5 12 Yu Shan Road, Qingdao, 266003, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Xuebin Ma, Baohua Zhu & Kehou Pan

  4. Department of Radiology, PLA 305 Hospital, Beijing, 100017, China

    Xingyu Fang

  5. Function Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Kehou Pan

Authors
  1. Yan Zhao
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  2. Jun Li
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  3. Xuebin Ma
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  5. Baohua Zhu
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Contributions

Yan Zhao: Writing — review and editing, supervision, conceptualization, and funding acquisition. Jun Li: data curation, roles/writing — original draft, validation, and methodology. Xuebin Ma: formal analysis and software. Xingyu Fang: software. Baohua Zhu: supervision. Kehou Pan: project administration, funding acquisition, conceptualization, and supervision.

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Correspondence to Yan Zhao or Kehou Pan.

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Zhao, ., Li, J., Ma, X. et al. Screening and application of Chlorella strains on biosequestration of the power plant exhaust gas evolutions of biomass growth and accumulation of toxic agents. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 6744–6754 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15950-8

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