CO2 to biochar: harnessing the potential of a fast-growing cyanobacterium for cost-efficient carbon capture utilisation and storage

每年排放超过25000吨二氧化碳的工业占欧洲固定装置总排放量的40%，目前在欧盟排放交易计划（ETS）下，每吨二氧化碳的碳税约为100欧元。这些行业正在拼命寻找可负担得起的碳捕获技术来减少排放，然而，目前主要使用的直接空气捕获（DAC）在商业上是不可行的。该项目的领导者cyanoccapture有限公司是一家创新型中小企业，旨在通过结合新型光生物反应器工艺和快速生长的蓝细菌——synechococcussp . UTEX 3154 (Syn3154)，开发一种可持续的、具有成本效益的点源碳捕获解决方案。光合蓝藻普遍存在，占环境二氧化碳固定的30-50%。蓝藻在捕获二氧化碳方面自然比植物要高效得多，因此是可扩展碳捕获的绝佳候选者。蓝细菌Syn3154是一种快速生长、高生物量积累的菌株，其倍增时间不到3小时，不需要外部补充维生素来促进其生长，这意味着它有可能成为大规模去除二氧化碳的优秀候选者。爱丁堡大学的项目合作伙伴UKBRC将开发一种可持续的方法，将蓝藻生物量转化为稳定的生物炭，并评估其在农业、建筑、卫生、环境管理等方面的应用，这些应用不仅能长期封存碳，还能带来额外的经济和社会效益。提出的突破性解决方案能够实现经济实惠的二氧化碳捕获，并具有强大的潜力，可以提升英国在全球净零转型的前沿地位。

Industries producing over 25,000 T CO2/year represent ~40% of the total emissions of stationary installations in Europe and are currently subject to a carbon tax at ~€100/T CO2 under the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). These industries are desperately looking for affordable carbon capture technologies to reduce emissions, however, current prominently used direct air capture (DAC) is not commercially feasible at scale.CyanoCapture Ltd., the project lead, is an innovative SME aiming to develop a sustainable and cost-effective solution for point source carbon capture by combining novel photobioreactor processes and a fast-growing cyanobacterium, _Synechococcus_ sp. UTEX 3154 (Syn3154). Photosynthetic cyanobacteria are ubiquitous and account for 30-50% of environmental CO2 fixation. Cyanobacteria are naturally far more efficient than plants at capturing CO2 and hence are excellent candidates for scalable carbon capture. The cyanobacterium Syn3154 is a fast-growing, high biomass accumulating strain with a doubling time of less than 3 hours, with no need for external supplementation of vitamins for its growth -- meaning that it carries the potential to be an excellent candidate to enable mass-scale CO2 removal.The project partner UKBRC at the University of Edinburgh will develop a sustainable method for conversion of cyanobacteria biomass into stable biochar and evaluate applications such as agriculture, construction, sanitation, environmental management etc. that offer not only long-term carbon sequestration, but also additional economic and societal benefits. The proposed breakthrough solution enables affordable CO2 capture and has a strong potential to elevate the UK's position at the forefront of the global Net-Zero transition.