Microalgae for Carbon Recycle and Management of Wastewater and Energy
This project is to integrate the use of CO2 gas separated from combustion flue gas with autotrophic microalgae cultivation for water-energy nexus (i.e. neutral carbon cycling and water/energy savings). We use NaHCO3 or Na2CO3 as a buffer chemical that can keep the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC, CO2(aq) + HCO3-) concentration high for enhanced CO2 gas absorption and high microalgal growth kinetics. We study the intracellular mass transfer of dissolved inorganic carbon species under high dissolved inorganic carbon flux to understand the mass transfer and photosynthesis of inorganic carbon species. We also made a modeling effort to describe the growth kinetics of microalgae coupled with the effects of photolimitation and photoinhibition. Our studies in this area can be found in Publications.