Microalgae that convert energy from sunlight into biomass

The CO2Algaefix project, aimed at recovering carbon dioxide through microalgae cultivation, ends after four years of research and development. This ambitious project, co-financed by the Directorate General of the Environment of the European Union through the Life+ program, was born with the objective of demonstrating the viability of a CO2 capture and biofixation process using microalgae, in an industrial electricity generation plant. The 'Monitor Team' for the European Commission of the CO2Algaefix project, Filipa Ferrao, has made the last visit to the microalgae cultivation plant located in the Cadiz town of Arcos de la Frontera where she has been able to verify the real scope of execution of the prototype, as well as the multiple technical and economic advances experienced. Filipa Ferrao has pointed out that “everything learned over these four years is important, including the errors, since it will serve to improve the current state of the art and the continuity of the operation of the installation, and other similar ones.”

The CO2Algaefix project has involved the construction and operation of a microalgae cultivation plant, on a pre-industrial scale, in Arcos de la Frontera, an area with a high level of solar radiation and temperatures that favor the cultivation of these photosynthetic microorganisms, using them as a carbon source. the combustion gases from the Iberdrola Combined Cycle Power Plant (1,600 MW of installed power), adjacent to the plant.

100 tons of biomass per hectare and year
The construction and operation of this plant has been a milestone worldwide, due to its dimensions, the cultivation techniques applied and the technical-scientific objectives pursued, among which are achieving a production of 100 tons of biomass per hectare and year, equivalent to the capture of 200 tons of CO2 per hectare and year.

Microalgae are photosynthetic organisms capable of converting, with high efficiency rates, the energy of sunlight into biomass, consuming carbon dioxide as the main nutrient and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. This makes it possible to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while obtaining a wide variety of products, all of them with applications in various sectors, such as agriculture, nutraceuticals, cosmetics or aquaculture, among others.

First global installation on a pre-industrial scale
The microalgae cultivation plant of the CO2Algaefix project has been the first global installation on a pre-industrial scale that has implemented various cultivation techniques, tubular reactors, flat vertical reactors and raceway reactors, on a pre-industrial scale. industrial, and using industrial combustion gases as a carbon source for crops.

The idea of ​​installing different cultivation technologies arose in order to compare the achievable productivity rates, in terms of biomass production and CO2 fixation, in addition to being able to have a versatile facility with the capacity to cultivate a wide range of strains and with different construction and production costs.

In this sense, the Monitor Team highlighted during the visit the importance of all the knowledge and valuable experiences acquired throughout the 4-year period in which the project has been developed, including the errors, from which a very relevant information that has served to improve the state of the art and that will allow continuity of the operation of this plant, and of others that may be built in the future, with efficiency criteria.

With this objective, the results obtained and the experience acquired with this project are made available to researchers, companies and the general public, through the publication Manual of Good Practices , as well as the aspects to take into account when putting start up and operate an industrial facility for cultivating photosynthetic microorganisms (microalgae and/or cyanobacteria). Edited by the partners that make up CO2Algaefix, it can be consulted through this website .