Power stations and industrial factories contribute a significant fraction of total anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, which need to be mitigated to reduce their effect on the climate. Commercially available methods of CCUS (Carbon capture and utilisation or storage) rely on toxic chemicals for the capture processes as well as the long-term storage of CO₂ gas. The use of photosynthetic microalgae for CCUS offers the potential for a sustainable capture system, which can both reduce emissions and produce renewable products. Previous studies have focused largely on the products (particularly biofuels) from microalgae, rather than their ability to capture CO₂. In this study, Chlorella sp. was cultivated with CO₂ concentrations similar to those present in power-station flue gases. 5 % CO₂ was found to be the optimal concentration for growth of the microalgae. The CO₂ removal efficiency of the cultures was then monitored in real-time with a nondispersive infrared sensor. The average CO₂ removal efficiency was 17.5 % over 14 days, considerably higher than results reported within the literature which do not use a direct real-time monitoring system. A techno-economic assessment of algal-CCUS was performed using the experimental results and a range of different financial and operational scenarios. The assessment highlights that whilst microalgal CCUS is currently not competitive, it has potential to become so with advances in strain CO₂ removal efficiency. This, alongside the reduction of capital expenditure and increasing government incentives for reducing emissions will make algal-carbon capture economically feasible.

发电站和工业工厂占人为 CO ₂总排放量的很大一部分，需要加以缓解以减少它们对气候的影响。CCUS（碳捕获和利用或储存）的市售方法依赖于用于捕获过程以及长期储存 CO ₂气体的有毒化学品。将光合微藻用于 CCUS 为可持续捕获系统提供了潜力，该系统既可以减少排放，又可以生产可再生产品。以前的研究主要集中在来自微藻的产品（特别是生物燃料），而不是它们捕获 CO ₂的能力。在这项研究中，小球藻属。用 CO ₂培养与发电站烟气中存在的浓度相似。发现5% CO ₂是微藻生长的最佳浓度。然后用非分散红外传感器实时监测培养物的 CO ₂去除效率。14 天内的平均 CO ₂去除效率为 17.5%，远高于不使用直接实时监测系统的文献中报告的结果。使用实验结果和一系列不同的财务和运营方案对藻类 CCUS 进行了技术经济评估。评估强调，虽然微藻 CCUS 目前没有竞争力，但随着 CO ₂菌株的进步，它有可能变得如此去除效率。这一点，加上资本支出的减少和政府减少排放的激励措施，将使藻类碳捕获在经济上可行。