Developing CO2-reutilization core technologies for the conversion of biofuels and chemicals

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions has become the most critical global issue. As one of the most efficient CO₂-fixation organisms in the world, microalgae can fix CO₂ via the photosynthesis process and convert it to biofuels or high-value products. Therefore, cultivation of microalgae is considered the most promising platform for CO₂ capture and re-utilization. To facilitate the commercialization of microalgae-based CO₂ fixation and utilization, this project aims to developing breakthrough technologies, which would improve and integrate the current technologies and make them more feasible for practical applications. The major research directions in this project include (1) developing microalgae mutants with the enhancement in their growth rate, temperature tolerance and carbon dioxide fixation efficiency; (2) developing a large scale outdoor microalgae cultivation system using flue gas from China Petroleum Company or NCKU’s Sustainable Environment Research Center as the carbon sources and employing different operation strategies to further improve the CO₂ fixation efficiency; (3) developing effective microalgal biodiesel production and high value products harvesting methods; the residual algal cells or byproducts (e.g., glycerol) will also be used to produce value-added products to enhance the economic feasibility of the overall process; (4) establishing high-pressure water method to disrupt the cell wall and supercritical fluid extraction system to extract the functional components from microalgae for follow-up biorefineries; and (5) Re-utilizing wastewaters from microalgae cultivation process or from industrial/agricultural activities to capture the CO₂ in flue gases by alkaline water absorption method and the inorganic carbon containing wastewaters are then be used for microalgae cultivation. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop microalgae-based CO₂ fixation and re-utilization technologies that are sustainable and easy to be commercialized.