Process effect of microalgal-carbon dioxide fixation and biomass production: A review

Global warming caused by anthropogenic CO2 emission has been one of the most important issues in the fields of science, environment and even international economics and politics. To control and reduce CO2 emissions, intensive carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies have been comprehensively developed for sequestration of CO2 especially from combustion flue gas. Microalgae-based CO2 biological fixation is regarded as a potential way to not only reduce CO2 emission but also achieve energy utilization of microalgal biomass. However, in this approach culture process of microalgae plays an important role as it is directly related to the mechanism of microalgal-CO2 fixation and characteristics of microalgal biomass production. The aim of this work is to present a state-of-the-art review on the process effect, especially on the effects of photobiochemical process, microalgal species, physicochemical process and hydrodynamic process on the performance of microalgal-CO2 fixation and biomass production. Also, the perspectives are proposed in order to provide a positive reference on developing its fundamental research and key technology. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.