Microalgae can convert carbon dioxide in exhaust gas and nitrogen, phosphorus, and other pollutants in wastewater into biomass through photosynthesis. Researchers can destroy microalgae cells and extract organic components such as oil and carbohydrates from the cells, which can further produce clean fuels such as bio oil and bio gas.
Excessive carbon dioxide emissions are one of the main culprits of global climate change. How can we reduce carbon dioxide? For example, can we ‘eat’ it? Not to mention, small microalgae have such a “good appetite”, and they can not only “eat” carbon dioxide, but also turn it into “oil”.
How to achieve effective utilization of carbon dioxide has become a key concern for scientists around the world, and microalgae, this small ancient organism, has become a good helper for us to fix carbon and reduce emissions with its ability to turn “carbon” into “oil”.

Small microalgae can turn ‘carbon’ into ‘oil’
The ability of small microalgae to convert carbon into oil is related to the composition of their bodies. The esters and sugars rich in microalgae are excellent raw materials for preparing liquid fuels. Driven by solar energy, microalgae can synthesize carbon dioxide into high energy density triglycerides, and these oil molecules can not only be used to produce biodiesel, but also as important raw materials for extracting high nutrient unsaturated fatty acids such as EPA and DHA.
The photosynthetic efficiency of microalgae is currently the highest among all living organisms on Earth, 10 to 50 times higher than that of terrestrial plants. It is estimated that microalgae fix about 90 billion tons of carbon and 1380 trillion megajoules of energy through photosynthesis on Earth each year, and the exploitable energy is about 4-5 times the world’s annual energy consumption, with a huge amount of resources.
It is understood that China emits about 11 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year, of which more than half is carbon dioxide from coal-fired flue gas. The use of microalgae for photosynthetic carbon sequestration in coal-fired industrial enterprises can greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Compared with traditional coal-fired power plant flue gas emission reduction technologies, microalgae carbon sequestration and reduction technologies have the advantages of simple process equipment, easy operation, and green environmental protection. In addition, microalgae also have the advantages of having a large population, being easy to cultivate, and being able to grow in places such as oceans, lakes, saline alkali land, and swamps.
Due to their ability to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and produce clean energy, microalgae have received widespread attention both domestically and internationally.
However, it is not easy to make microalgae that grow freely in nature become “good employees” for carbon sequestration on industrial lines. How to artificially cultivate algae? Which microalgae has a better carbon sequestration effect? How to improve the carbon sequestration efficiency of microalgae? These are all difficult problems that scientists need to solve.