Unlocking the potential of microalgae bio-factories for carbon dioxide mitigation: A comprehensive exploration of recent advances, key challenges, and energy-economic insights.

Microalgae are promising alternatives to mitigate atmospheric CO ₂ owing to their fast growth rates, resilience in the face of adversity and ability to produce a wide range of products, including food, feed supplements, chemicals, and biofuels. However, to fully harness the potential of microalgae-based carbon capture technology, further advancements are required to overcome the associated challenges and limitations, particularly with regards to enhancing CO ₂ solubility in the culture medium. This review provides an in-depth analysis of the biological carbon concentrating mechanism and highlights the current approaches, including species selection, optimization of hydrodynamics, and abiotic components, aimed at improving the efficacy of CO ₂ solubility and biofixation. Moreover, cutting-edge strategies such as gene mutation, bubble dynamics and nanotechnology are systematically outlined to elevate the CO ₂ biofixation capacity of microalgal cells. The review also evaluates the energy and economic feasibility of using microalgae for CO ₂ bio-mitigation, including challenges and prospects for future development.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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