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

每年产生超过25,000吨二氧化碳的行业占欧洲固定设施总排放量的约40%，根据欧盟排放交易计划(ETS)，目前需要缴纳~100欧元/吨二氧化碳的碳税。这些行业都在拼命寻找经济实惠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)在商业上并不可行。该项目的负责人CyanoCapture Ltd.是一家创新的中小型企业，旨在通过结合新颖的光生物反应器工艺和快速生长的蓝藻_聚球藻_SP来开发可持续且具有成本效益的点源碳捕获解决方案。UTEX 3154(Syn3154)。光合作用的蓝藻普遍存在，占环境固定二氧化碳的30%-50%。蓝藻在捕获二氧化碳方面自然比植物高效得多，因此是可扩展碳捕获的极佳候选者。蓝藻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生长-这意味着它具有成为实现大规模二氧化碳去除的极佳候选者的潜力。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质转化为稳定的生物炭，并评估农业、建筑、卫生、环境管理等应用领域，这些应用不仅提供长期的碳固定，而且还提供额外的经济和社会效益。拟议的突破性解决方案能够实现负担得起的二氧化碳捕获，并有很大潜力提升英国在全球净零过渡中的领先地位。

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.