Establishing and validation of parameters for CO2 capture by microalgae in BioTron Tower

To be able to mitigate the process of climate change, it is essential that ways are found to stop release of
CO2 to the atmosphere. CO2 emissions can be reduced by generating energy with renewables, but the
possibility of carbon capture directly from processes that emit CO2 offer an additional complementary
approach. One way in which this can be done is to harness the ability of microalgae to capture CO2 using
photosynthesis and to couple this to CO2 generated by fixed installations such as wastewater facilities, carbon emitting or industrial processes. To be able to deploy this approach to capture CO2 at the scale needed to make a difference to CO2 emissions from such locations, microalgal growth must be optimised and the inputs needed to operate the cultivation must be minimised. Carbon Harvest Ltd (CHL) has developed a novel
photobioreactor, a BioTron Tower, for the accelerated growth of algae, using CO2 waste streams from
industrial and water treatment processes. A hundred litre BioTron Tower has been shown to allow
production of algal biomass some 10-times more than that in conventional photobioreactors. CHL
has now constructed a medium scale 1500 litre Bi0Tron Tower, and this project will be for the academic
partner to test its productivity. The work will take place in the Algal Innovation Centre at the University of
Cambridge, where algal cultivation can be carried out under semi-natural conditions, similar to those that
might be encountered at an industrial facility. The growth and productivity of different algal strains in the
BioTron Tower will be determined, along with testing a range of different cultivation methods. The
information gained will allow both further optimisation of the BioTron Tower design as well as the likely scale
of algal cultivation needed to support CO2 capture from fixed installations. At the same time the overall
biomass composition of the algae will be measured, to allow exploration of how this might be exploited.