Microbial carbon capture is emerging as a promising strategy to control atmospheric CO2 and mitigate global warming while simultaneously producing various products with significant market potential, such as fuels, fertilizers and animal feed. To achieve this, researchers are developing microorganisms –including bacteria and microalgae – that use sunlight or sustainable chemical energy to absorb and transform gases. Once this technology scales companies could generate new products for the market instead of paying between $50 and $100 per ton of CO2 to offset their emissions.
It is one of ten emerging technologies identified by the World Economic Forum in its annual report featuring developments poised to have the greatest impact on societies and economies in the next three to five years. The report, which was released on June 25 during the Forum’s Annual Meeting of The New Champions, was compiled with the help of Frontiers, a publisher of peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journals, and the expertise of over 300 world-leading academics from the Forum’s Global Future Councils.
