A Proposal to Establish an International Network on Biofixation of CO 2 and Greenhouse Gas Abatement with Microalgae

Microalgae mass cultures can use solar energy for the biofixation of power plant flue gas and other concentrated CO2 sources into biomass that can be used to produce renewable fuels such as methane, ethanol, biodiesel, oils and hydrogen and for other fossil-fuel sparing products and processes. They thus can mitigate emissions of fossil CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Microalgae are currently used commercially in the production of high-value nutritional products, in wastewater treatment and in aquaculture. One commercial microalgae production plant, in Hawaii, is already using flue gas from a small power plant as an exogenous source of the CO2 required to grow algal biomass. Although still a relatively small industry (total production is only a few thousand tons of algal biomass per year world-wide), microalgae technologies have been extensively studied over the past decade in the context of greenhouse gas mitigation, specifically in Japan and the U.S.