Articles
  • Autotrophic and mixotrophic culture of electro-active microalgae with electron supplied from electrodes for CO2 conversion
  • Aswathy Udayan#, Seongcheol Kang# and Byoung-In Sang*

  • Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangshimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Electrochemical technologies that involve microorganisms are considered to be promising for sustainable applications. Microalgae can be used for carbon capture through photosynthesis which can directly fix carbon dioxide (CO2). The conversion of CO2 into fuel energy and other high value metabolites without pollution can contribute to reduce CO2 emissions with more economic value. Light energy to biomass conversion efficiency is a major challenge in microalgal cultivation. Electrode assisted cultivation techniques for improved photosynthetic and carbon (CO2) fixation metabolism for growth and biomass productivity have rarely been explored for microalgae. Light limitation, which leads to the loss of photosynthetic efficiency that in turn leads to decreased microalgal growth, is a major problem in large scale cultivation systems. Here, we summarise the ability of microalgae to perform extracellular electron uptake from cathode material for efficient biomass production and CO2 conversion. The present review provides insights into the possible development of electroactive microalgae under autotrophic and mixotrophic conditions for efficient CO2 conversion. Using the current knowledge of bioelectrochemistry and learning lessons from electroactive bacteria, we propose a proof of concept for electroactive microalgae and their future applications in CO2 sequestration


Keywords: Electroactive microalgae, CO2 fixation, Extracellular electron uptake, Autotrophy, Mixotrophy

This Article

  • 2023; 24(1): 29-39

    Published on Feb 28, 2023

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2023.24.1.29
  • Received on May 25, 2022
  • Revised on Jul 12, 2022
  • Accepted on Jul 21, 2022

Correspondence to

  • Byoung-In Sang
  • Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangshimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
    Tel : +82-2-2220-2328 Fax: +82-2-2220-4716

  • E-mail: biosang@hanyang.ac.kr