IMR Press / FBE / Volume 15 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbe1501003
Open Access Original Research
The Possibility of Deploying CO2 from Biogas Combustion to Improve the Productivity of a Periodical Chlorella vulgaris Culture
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1 Department of Environment Engineering, Faculty of Geoengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-710 Olsztyn, Poland
2 Department of Water Supply and Sewage Systems, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Bialystok University of Technology, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland
*Correspondence: marcin.zielinski@uwm.edu.pl (Marcin Zieliński)
Academic Editor: Baohong Zhang
Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2023, 15(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbe1501003
Submitted: 14 May 2022 | Revised: 30 August 2022 | Accepted: 7 September 2022 | Published: 16 January 2023
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the major contributor to the global emissions of greenhouse gases, which necessitates the search for its fixation and utilization methods. Engaging photosynthesizing microorganisms for its biosequestration is one of the prospective technologies applied to this end. Considering the paucity of literature works on the possibilities of deploying CO2 from biogas combustion to intensify microalgae production, this research aimed to identify the feasibility of using this type of CO2 in Chlorella vulgaris culture by evaluating biomass production yield and CO2 biosequestration effectiveness. Methods: The experiment was performed in glass PBR, in which the culture medium occupied the volume of 1.0 dm3, and the gaseous phase occupied 0.3 dm3. The reactors were continuously illuminated by fluorescent lamps. The temperature of flue gases and air fed to reactors, and culture temperature was 20 °C ± 2 °C. Results: The use of flue gases promoted a more rapid biomass growth, reaching 77.8 ± 3.1 mgVS/dm3d, and produced a higher microalgae concentration, i.e., 780 ± 58 mgVS/dm3. Nevertheless, the flue gas-fed culture turned out to be highly sensitive, which was manifested in a decreased culture medium pH and relatively quickly achieved decay phase of the C. vulgaris population. The microalgae effectively assimilated CO2, reducing its concentration from 13 ± 1% to 1 ± 0.5% in the effluent from the photobioreactor. Conclusions: The flue gases were found not to affect the qualitative composition of the microalgal biomass. However, strict control and monitoring of microalgae biomass production is necessary, as well as rapid responses in flue gas-fed systems. This is an important hint for potential operators of such technological systems on the large scale. Regardless of the possibility of deploying microalgae to fix and utilize CO2, a justified avenue of research is to look for cheap sources of CO2-rich gases.

Keywords
biogas
flue gases
carbon dioxide
microalgae
biomass
Chlorella vulgaris
photobioreactor
Funding
010/RID/2018/19/Minister of Education and Science
WZ/WB-IIŚ/3/2022/Minister of Education and Science
BIOSTRATEG2/296369/5/NCBR/2016/National Centre for Research and Development
Figures
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