Researchers at the University of Hawaii at Hilo are spearheading algae research that could lead to energy production with negative carbon dioxide emissions.
Their study, called “Integrating Algae with Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (ABECCS) Increases Sustainability,” creates a new, combined process to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, produce food and electricity and reduce deforestation.
The study is funded by a U.S. Department of Energy award and recently was published in the journal Earth’s Future. The UH-Hilo researchers are working in affiliation with Duke and Cornell universities.
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS, is a negative emissions technology which entails burning wood to generate power, capturing the resulting carbon dioxide and burying it underground.
BECCS, however, has been strongly criticized for threatening land and water resources that support natural forests and agriculture production.
The study’s authors combine BECCS with algae production to create a “new synergistic process” called “Algae with Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (ABECCS),” according to a UH-Hilo news release.
Marine microalgae is seen as a “promising source for food and biofuels” and can be produced using seawater and grown in higher quantities than land crops and in areas unsuitable for agriculture. The main drawback is that algae growth requires large quantities of electricity and carbon dioxide.
The researchers said their results show “ABECCS could be a leading candidate to contribute to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere in a sustainable way.”
The financial viability of an ABECCS system is still being studied.
The study’s authors include Colin Beal and Ian Archibald of UH-Hilo’s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management; Mark Huntley and Charles Green, who are affiliated with CAFNRM and Cornell University; and Zackary Johnson of Duke University’s Biology Department and Marine Laboratory.
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