Design and techno-economic analysis of direct CO2 capturing with integrated photobioreactors as a building façade

Abstract

While urban areas are one of the sources of carbon emissions, a lack of research exists on carbon capture, storage, and utilization (CCUS) technologies in the urban. Among different CCUS technologies, direct air capture by microalgae to use in the cultivation process can be one of the possible solutions that can be integrated with the building facade. This research investigates the techno-economic analysis of direct carbon-capturing by microalgae cultivation in photobioreactors integrated into the building façade to produce value-added products. The case study is a commercial building in one of the polluted zones in Tehran. The building facade was designed considering the flat panel photobioreactor with 2 × 1 × 0.05 m3. The microalgae selected in this study is Chlorella Vulgaris. The results show that the designed system produced 2.2 tons of microalgae and captured 3.9 tons of CO2 yearly. In this study, the cost of cultivated microalgae is $10 per kg. Also, the scenarios defined in the sensitive analysis section show that increasing the cultivation capacity or changing the specie of microalgae decreases the cost of producing microalgae.