The Influence of Dispersed CO2 Concentration During Biofixation by

Microalgae
Andreas Dwiputra, Soen Steven, I.G. Wenten*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung, 40132, Indonesia
*Email: igw@che.itb.ac.id

Abstract. The main causes of global warming is from CO 2 emissions at atmosphere. Microalgae can be one of
solutions to reduce carbon dioxide by using it as main source of photosynthesis and convert to O 2 and biomass.

Keywords: Biofixation, CO2 concentration, Microalgae, Photobioreactor.

1.

plants, cement factories, and fermentative and chemical

oxidation processes. In addition to the carbon dioxide
emitted industrially, the CO2 generated in residences,
buildings and commercial complexes also contributes to
the stationary emissions, as do forest and agricultural
fires. Terrestrial sequestration through prevention of
deforestation, afforestation and reforestation results in
carbon-storage. Afforestation (planting trees where
none existed before, at least in recent history) and
reforestation (replacing recently destroyed forests) is a
relative cost-effective way to reduce atmospheric CO2
levels. These can compensate for CO2 emissions at
remote locations, the CO2 emissions trading option.
According to Yang et al. (2008) there are three options
to reduce total CO2 emission into the atmosphere: (1)
reducing energy intensity use, (2) reducing carbon
intensity use, and (3) enhancing the sequestration of
CO2. The first option requires efficient use of energy;
the second one refers to the use of non-fossil fuels and
the third option involves technologies to capture and
reuse the CO2.

Introduction

A process that uses microorganism to do fixation

of carbon dioxide called biofixation. Microalgae is one
of microorganism that could do biofixation with carbon
dioxide as carbon source. Many studies explain, by
using microalgae, carbon dioxide concentration of
atmosphere can be reduced. Microalgae has no vascular
system for nutrient and water transport, but make up for
that by having a very large surface to volume ratio
(Harmelen and Oonk, 2006).
The global energy crisis and countries political
pressure to reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG) have
also attracted many researchers to find solutions for
current excessive demand for energy. The processing of
algae biomass has an important role in the sustainability
performance of algae biodiesel production. The use of a
microalgae that can be efficiently cultured under
heterotrophic or mixotrophic conditions for inoculum
and phototrophically for biomass growth and lipid
accumulation was proposed as a two-stage cultivation
strategy to address the challenges associated with long
growth times and contamination in large-scale openpond operations. Microalgae represent an ideal system
to study the mechanisms and regulation of electron flow
because they grow faster than plants; they can be
isolated as axenic populations and easily manipulated.
Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms
capable to fixate CO2 from the atmosphere. Therefore
represent a big opportunity to overcome the global
warming problem caused by the CO2 emitted from
anthropogenic activities. Converting CO2 into HCO3can reduce the high cost of CO2 compression for store
and transport. Eukaryotic photosynthesis is an
extremely ancient process, the primary endosymbiotic
event considered to be at the origin of all photosynthetic
eukaryotes being traceable back at least 1.8 billion
years. In oxygenic photosynthesis, carbon assimilation
is mainly driven by linear electron flow (LEF), which
requires the in series activity of the two photosystems.
ATP and NADPH are produced in this process,
although in a ratio probably not sufficient to support the
formation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, the export
product of the Calvin Benson Bassham (CBB) cycle.
Additionally, the organic carbon used in the first-stage
heterotrophic cultivation could be derived from various
waste sources, including cellulosic sugars from
agricultural crop residues, acetate from pyrolyzed
forestry residues, and crude glycerol from
transesterification processes.
Sources of carbon dioxide emission can be
classified as stationary, mobile or natural. The industrial
processes most contributing to increasing atmospheric
CO2 concentrations consist of electrical energy
generating plants, hydrogen and ammonia production

2.

Experimental Method

3.

Results and Discussion

4.

Conclusion

diameter, requires 4-5 m3 of ultrapure water. A modern

plant for the production of semiconductor materials uses
100-300 m3 ultrapure water per hour, while the overall
world market for ultrapure water is estimated at around
US$ 2.3 billion per annum in 2000 (Franken T,1999).
Despite

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