Harnessing Algae for Carbon Capture and Biofuel Production
Funded through the Grand Challenge: Innovative Carbon Uses Round 1 in 2014, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science partnered with HY-TEK Bio to develop an algal-based carbon sequestration system. The project focused on deploying full-scale photobioreactors to capture carbon dioxide from industrial flue gas while producing biofuel intermediates and high-value bioproducts. The team constructed four 6,800-litre and three 500-litre photobioreactors at HY-TEK Bio’s facility located at the Baltimore Wastewater Treatment Plant. These systems were connected to a nearby power plant’s flue gas stream and equipped with custom spargers, LED lighting, and real-time monitoring systems to optimize algal growth.
Researchers developed mutant strains of a special type of algae called HTB1 that demonstrated improved growth rates and lipid production. Lab-scale cultivation showed that both wild-type and mutant strains could reach biomass concentrations of 3 grams per litre within a week. Using these figures, the team estimated that the full-scale system could sequester up to 50 tonnes of CO2 annually. In parallel, the project advanced aggregation and enzymatic conversion technologies, enabling efficient harvesting and transformation of algal biomass into fuel-grade compounds.
Turning Emissions into Bio-Based Products
The project’s outcomes highlight both the promise and complexity of scaling algal carbon capture systems. While full-scale reactors faced biological challenges, the successful cultivation and processing of HTB1 strains in controlled lab environments demonstrated the viability of the core technology. The ability to aggregate algae efficiently and convert lipids into fuel intermediates using enzymatic methods marks a significant step toward integrated carbon capture and bio-refining. These advances suggest that, with further refinement of reactor conditions and biological controls, the system could evolve into a modular solution for industrial CO2 mitigation.
What’s next?
While the ERA-funded project itself did not achieve all its goals, work at the University of Maryland has continued, and in 2020, the U.S. DOE awarded the researchers $3M in funding to scale up the technology. Work to date has been performed mainly in collaboration with the U.S. Argonne National Laboratory, located near Chicago, IL. There was a period of time in which Alberta’s oilsands industry also expressed interest in this work; however, the technology remains very early stage, and there is currently no anticipated commercial potential for the technology in Alberta in the near term.