Algal technologies for biological capture and utilization of CO₂ require breakthroughs in basic research

To fully offset the carbon emitted from anthropogenic sources, taking into account the 55% that are captured by enhanced biological and physical processes in the global carbon cycle, an additional 4 Gigatons (Gt) of carbon must be captured per year, and that number is likely to increase. Options for technology that can capture such an immense amount of carbon in the near term are limited. There are real opportunities for achieving significant reductions in CO ₂ emissions in the algal field but the current state of research is still very much in the realm of basic science and much needs to be done before we can think about it in technological terms. Biological capture by photosynthetic microbes is an attractive technology because it is renewable, scalable, and may be used to produce fuels and chemicals cheaply. Identification of novel, robust strains, and breakthroughs in bioreactor design and harvesting/extraction technology, are necessary to realize this goal. This chapter, and the workshop from which it is derived assesses the productivity and carbon capture capacity of photosynthetic microbes and outlines the areas in which there are opportunities to achieve significant reductions in CO ₂ emissions.