Effective Biological DeNOx of Industrial Flue Gas by the Mixotrophic Cultivation of an Oil-Producing Green Alga Chlorella sp. C2.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are the components of fossil flue gas that result in the most serious environmental concerns. We previously showed that the biological removal of NOx by microalgae appears superior to traditional treatments. This study optimizes the strategy for the microalgal-based DeNOx of flue gas by fed-batch mixotrophic cultivation. By using actual flue gas fixed salts (FGFS) as the nitrogen supply, the mixotrophical cultivation of the green alga Chlorella sp. C2 with high NOx absorption efficiency was optimized in a stepwise manner in a 5 L bioreactor and resulted in a maximum biomass productivity of 9.87 g L(-1) d(-1). The optimized strategy was further scaled up to 50 L, and a biomass productivity of 7.93 g L(-1) d(-1) was achieved, with an overall DeNOx efficiency of 96%, along with an average nitrogen CR of 0.45 g L(-1) d(-1) and lipid productivity of 1.83 g L(-1) d(-1). With an optimized mixotrophical cultivation, this study further proved the feasibility of using Chlorella for the combination of efficient biological DeNOx of flue gas and microalgae-based products production. Thus, this study shows a promising industrial strategy for flue gas biotreatment in plants with limited land area.