초록
<P><B>Abstract</B></P><P><B>BACKGROUND</B></P><P><B>Flue gas as carbon source for microalgae culture has been applied to reduce the high cost of production. However, low mass transfer efficiency owing to the low CO<SUB>2</SUB> partial pressure in flue gas limited its utilization. In this work, monoethanolamine was proposed to enhance CO<SUB>2</SUB> utilization and microalgal biomass production</B>.</P><P><B>RESULTS</B></P><P><B>In abiotic absorption experiments, the total inorganic carbon concentration in the medium increased with the increase of monoethanolamine concentration and the CO<SUB>2</SUB> absorptivity remained above 60% for a considerable pH range (6.5–10.0). The biomass productivity and lipid productivity of <I>Scenedesmus dimorphus</I> were enhanced with monoethanolamine ranging from 0 to 100 mg L<SUP>−1</SUP>. When 100 mg L<SUP>−1</SUP> monoethanolamine was added, the CO<SUB>2</SUB> utilization efficiency reached 76.1%, which was much higher than the 44.5% obtained in routine culture. The growth of cells was inhibited with monoethanolamine concentration exceeding 150 mg L<SUP>−1</SUP>. The changes of net photosynthetic activity revealed that the oxygen evolving complex might be injured by the higher concentration of monoethanolamine</B>.</P><P><B>CONCLUSIONS</B></P><P><B>These results indicated that the incorporation of monoethanolamine could be a promising solution to the problem of low CO<SUB>2</SUB> utilization efficiency and low biomass productivity in the microalgae culture system. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry</B></P>