Carbon Sequestration Potential of Indigenous Microalgae

Unprecedented anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide are probably the cause of global warming and current alterations in climatic patterns across the World. The aquatic sequestration via microalgae is one among the effective methods of CO2 confiscation. Microalgae, the most important living resources of the fresh water and marine systems can be employed for Carbondioxide sequestration in an efficient manner as they have higher photosynthetic efficiency, higher biomass production and rapid growth rate compared to other energy crops. The present study has been attempted with the objective of screening indigenous microalgal species in accordance with their efficiencies in carbon assimilation. Various parameters like pH, dissolved oxygen, free carbon dioxide content, micrometry (cell size), cell count and biomass content of the cultures were worked out. On an overall assessment, it has been noticed that in spite of slightly acidic pH and higher free CO2, microalgal members under study exhibited higher rate of DO production, higher cell count and higher biomass production in treatment set which characteristically indicates their efficiencies in mitigating gaseous CO2.