Application of microalgae for CO2 sequestration and wastewater treatment

Abstract

Microalgae are unicellular to multicellular simple autotrophic organisms with simple growth requirements like light, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium present dissolved in their aqueous ecosystem. During the course of their growth, they intake these elements present in a different compound form in the water system. This makes them beneficial for removal of such moieties from wastewater where these are present in high amount as pollutants and may cause havoc to the natural ecosystem if released untreated. In this chapter, we have discussed algae with respect to their properties related to uptake of carbon dioxide from flue gas as well as nitrogen and heavy metal from the wastewater. We have also discussed few systems where different algae are used in conjunction with or without bacteria for increasing the efficiency of waste treatment. Few pilot-scale studies used for wastewater remediation are also discussed.