CO2 Removal from Industrial Flue Gas using Botryococcus braunii for Simultaneous Lipid Production

The aim of this research is to utilize flue gas from coal burning industrial plant as a carbon source to cultivate Botyrococcus braunii in laboratory flasks and outdoor open raceway ponds to achieve CO2 reduction from the flue gases along with biomass and lipid yields. Experiments were carried out in laboratory culture flasks using 6 % flue gas-air mixture at a flow rate of 0.1vvm for a minute per every half an hour and per every one hour and in the outdoor open raceway ponds using 6 % flue gas-air mixture at a flow rate of 0.1vvm for a minute per every one hour. The maximum biomass and lipid yields of 1.20 g/L and 0.19g/L respectively were obtained in 6 % flue gas concentrations aerated into culture flasks at 0.1vvm for every one hour. On the other hand the CO2 removal efficiency reached upto 73 % along with SOx and NOx reductions upto 50 %. Hence in the present study it was observed that the micro alga B. baunii utilized the flue gas-air mixture for CO2 reduction and in turn it produced biomass and lipids yields efficiently.