FUELGAE interview: Dr. Giannis Penloglou on Advancing Microalgae for CO₂ Capture and Biofuel Production
by Cliò E. Agrapidis, PhD Published: 05.03.2025
How can we turn industrial CO₂ emissions into a resource instead of waste? The FUELGAE project is tackling this challenge by using microalgae to capture CO₂ and produce biofuels. To learn more about current work and next steps in the FUELGAE project, we recently spoke with Dr. Giannis Penloglou, a leading researcher at FUELGAE partner CERTH in Thessaloniki, Greece. Dr. Penloglou told us more about the FUELGAE project goals and CERTH’s contributions.
CERTH’s Role in the FUELGAE Project
CERTH, as Dr. Penloglou explained, is a research center in Thessaloniki, Greece. This year, CERTH is celebrating its 25th anniversary as Greece’s leading research institute. Ranked 11th in Europe in competitive programs, it consists of five departments. Among them, CPERI is the department involved in the FUELGAE project, thanks to its knowledge in chemical technologies and fuels. CERTH also brings its expertise in “growing different microalgae using different growing systems in order to convert CO2 in microalgae biomass which then can be turned into advanced biofuels”.
How Microalgae Can Capture CO₂ and Produce Biofuels
Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms that, like other plants, use CO₂ and sunlight to produce biomass. They are much more efficient at capturing CO₂ than most terrestrial plants. However, this efficiency is highly sensitive to environmental conditions. In the FUELGAE project, the microalgae need to thrive in environments with high CO₂ emissions from working factories—conditions that could hinder their growth. Overcoming this challenge is at the core of the project, with FUELGAE focused on selecting and improving new microalgae strains capable of withstanding these stress factors. The research is concentrated on two case studies: bioethanol and steel plants, where the emission conditions are particularly harsh.
The creation of stronger variants, more resistant to the case studies conditions, is being carried out by the FUELGAE partner VTT in Finland, using adaptive laboratory evolution, a technique that directs the evolution of microorganisms to obtain strains with superior traits. CERTH will then devise experimental studies to test these new variants under stress conditions, with a focus on the ones expected in the case studies: high CO2 levels from the bioethanol production cycle and high emission temperature for the steel plant.
Towards Industrial Application
Dr. Penloglou also reminded us that the technology developed in the FUELGAE project will meet the criteria for Technology Readiness Level 5, meaning it will be validated in an industrially relevant environment. This means more work will be needed after the hopefully successful completion of FUELGAE to scale up the technology for industrial application. Still, he underlined how the most important aspect of the project is related to the enhanced CO2-capturing abilities of the specifically developed microalgae strains, which will be able to directly capture industrial emissions, helping reduce greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. For this reason, the project will include a new compact, modular and scalable photobioreactor. The final goal in optimizing the microalgae strains is to make them flexible and adaptable to different industrial conditions and industries with different emission profiles.
Finally, we heard more about CERTH’s next steps in the project. First, they need to further optimize the growing conditions for the selected microalgae strains, making sure they can efficiently capture CO2 and produce biofuels under industrial conditions. Another crucial step is scaling up the photobioreactor from the lab scale to the pilot scale. With this step, researchers are checking how well the optimized strains perform in larger volumes under real world conditions.
Microalgae for a Greener Future
The final goal of the FUELGAE project is well summarized by Dr. Penloglou himself: “By the end of the project, we aim to show the full potential of these strains to reduce industrial emissions and support sustainable biofuel production”.
Watch the full interview here.
