Current Affairs - Technology - Discussion

IIT Guwahati developed a nutrient-assisted two-stage cultivation process designed to enhance carbon dioxide capture and bioenergy production using microalgae. In the first stage, microalgal cultures are grown under 15% CO2 to support rapid growth and carbon availability. In the second stage, the CO2 concentration is reduced to 5%, while calcium and phosphorus are added to stabilise pH and improve biomass aggregation. The process achieved 25.7% higher biomass production and 35.4% higher CO2 fixation. Calcium also enabled auto-sedimentation, resulting in 98.46% biomass recovery efficiency and reducing energy requirements for downstream separation.