Plant Biotechnology and Global Sustainability - Part 3 of 4

Corrective Measures

As previously mentioned, Carbon Dioxide is one of the most emitted gases and of greater impact at a global level. The preventive measure referred to in the previous post would be a great step in mitigating its emission into the environment, but would in no way eliminate it altogether. However, microalgae can continue to show value also in a damage correction perspective, now having an active role in the assimilation of this gas, being again chosen because of its greater efficiency in CO2 assimilation as compared to terrestrial plants (Nigam and Singh, 2011). Algae even assimilate 183 tonnes of carbon dioxide in a production of 100 tonnes of biomass (Chisti, 2008).

Variables involved

According to Chawla et al. (2014), there are several variables to consider when establishing a carbon sequestration system using algae. These include the type of algae to be used, the cultivation system and the method of collecting biomass. The type of cultivation system, compared to an outdoor system, should be a photobioreactor, as it presents a higher rate of CO2 sequestration, greater light utilization efficiency and less probability of contamination. As for algae, productivity is considered; tolerance to temperature variations and concentrations of CO2, SOx and NOx; and fixation rates of Carbon Dioxide (Chawla et al., 2014, Kumar et al., 2011).

The different combinations of variables will respond unequally to different objectives and circumstances since they present advantages and disadvantages according to the intended.

Real Success Cases

There are already several cases of measures to be taken based on this "philosophy". I list below some of these:

• According to Chawla et al. (2014), a Chinese investor group (ENN Energy Holdings Limited) used microalgae to fix carbon dioxide up to 110 tonnes / year and then used algae biomass for the production of biofuels (20 tons / year) and protein (5 tons / year) (Chawla et al., 2014);
• Cloud Collective is a group of French and Dutch design companies that participated in a competition in Geneva with a project that consisted of a photobioreactor placed on a viaduct to purify polluted air from cars. Subsequently, they had in mind to use this biomass as a source of biodiesel, food, and energy (IFLScience);
• Australian company MBD Energy works with companies that emit a large amount of CO2 using its fuel synthesizer technology at its Bio CCS (Bio Carbon Capture and Storage) Algal Synthesiser facility to reduce the release of this gas to the atmosphere. At the same time, it promotes the growth of algae in order to produce plastics and biofuels (MBD industries; Power Plant CCS, 2010);
• Pierre Calleja, a biochemist at Fermentalg, has created self-sufficient city lamps that work from algae that consume CO2 from the air. A single lamp is able to absorb as much CO2 as one tree in a lifetime. (Fermentalg; Nguyen, 2013; Spendlove 2014).

Clean Cities

CO2 sequestration infrastructures are needed not only on highways or industrial sites with high greenhouse gas emissions. Also in cities, especially megacities, there is this need due to the large circulation of vehicles. This large circulation leads to an increase in the concentration of gases such as nitrogen oxides which, with the effect of sunlight, lead to the formation of photochemical Smog (Oblak, 2017). This phenomenon happens globally, from Los Angeles (USA) (Calvert, 1976), to Beijing, China (Wang, 2009). The various risks associated with contact with Smog (Environmental Protection Agency, 1999) make it necessary to take action. The ability of algae to assimilate nitrogen oxides (Shihady, 2014) can be reconciled with industrial bioreactors and city pollution, thus preventing the emergence of Smog phenomena.

There are species of terrestrial plants, such as Chrysanthemum morifolium and Spathiphyllum 'Mauna Loa', capable of absorbing compounds harmful to humans such as ammonia, benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and xylene (Wolverton, 1989). Perhaps the direct use of these plants in cities is not the most appropriate due to the possible dissemination of these plants in the environment where they were introduced, or by the most difficult "maintenance" of the ideal conditions of assimilation of gases. For these and other reasons, the study of the absorption of these gases can be reconciled with bioreactors, the use of which can be of great importance both outside and inside homes.

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