Algae & Carbon Capture

Mass cultures of microalgae are suitable for production of renewable chemicals and fuels, and for CO2 fixation and water purification. The combination of production of renewable materials with environmental applications is one of major advantages of microalgal culture. It supports sustainability and process economy. Currently, we are working on enhanced algal cultivation to sequester CO2, utilize nutrients in waste streams, and produce value-added biofuels/chemicals. The components from algae we are targeting are lipid, starch, and protein. Our research combines laboratory and pilot studies to determine the factors that influence the growth and composition of microalgae in both fresh water and agricultural/industrial wastewater, and further develop processes to convert these components into fine chemicals and fuels such as plastics, enzymes, biodiesel, and ethanol etc. The research topics include:

• Microalgae cultivation on flue gas from power industry;

• Carbon dioxide capture using a combined chemical and biological process;

• Improving energy and water efficiency and generating high-value co-products from an integrated algae cultivation and wastewater treatment system.

Algal Cultivation on carbon dioxide for energy and value-added chemical production

Related Publications:

1. Cutshaw, A., Daiek, C., Zheng, Y., Frost, H., Marks A., Clements, D., Uludag-Demirer S., Verhanovitz, N., Pavlik, D., Clary, W., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2020. A long-term pilot-scale algal cultivation on power plant flue gas – Cultivation stability and biomass accumulation. Algal Research 52, 102115

2. Hussain, J., Wang, X., Sousa, L., Ali, R., Rittmann, B. E., Liao, W. 2020. Using non-metric multi-dimensional scaling analysis and multi-objective optimization to evaluate green algae for production of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and simultaneously fix carbon dioxide. Biomass and Bioenergy 141, 105711.

3. Pavlik, D., Zhong, Y., Elizabeth, C., Liao, W., Morgan, R., Clary, W., Liu, Y. 2017 Microalgae cultivation of carbon dioxide sequestration and protein production using a high-efficiency photobioreactor system. Algal Research 25, 413-420

4. Wang, X. Q., Ruan, Z. H., Sears, B. B., Liu, Y., Liao, W. 2015. Transgenic expression of a bacterial thermophilic amylase in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast. BioEnergy Research 8(2), 527-536

5. Chen, R., Li, R., Dietz, L., Liu, Y., Stevenson, J., Liao, W. 2012. Freshwater algal cultivation with animal waste for nutrient removal and biomass accumulation. Journal of Biomass and Bioenergy 39, 128-138.