Photosynthetic Microorganism-Based CO2 Mitigation System: Integrated Approaches for Global Sustainability

Carbon dioxide (CO2), which has existed naturally as a key constituent of Earth’s atmosphere for billions of years is now a declared pollutant. It is the largest contributing gas to one of the biggest threats of planet, global warming. In the scenario of expensive and dangerous conventional CO2 mitigation techniques, biological approach in which CO2 is biologically transformed in to organic mass, seems to be cost-effective and environmentally sustainable method. Among all photosynthetic organisms, photosynthetic microorganisms can grow and fix CO2 much faster than terrestrial plants. Thus, they can produce lipids, proteins and carbohydrates in large amounts over short periods of time. These products can be further transformed into various bioenergy forms and value added chemicals. This chapter presents a detail overview of photosynthetic microorganism-based CO2 mitigation system and explore the possibilities of combining different areas of algal technologies. This system can be used to capture CO2 from flue gasses and produce valuable biomass for various applications.