Advanced Science and Technology Letters
Vol.116 (Bioscience and Medical Research 2015), pp.248-253
http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/astl.2015.116.51
Carbon Dioxide Reduction by Ceramic Carriers with
Photosynthetic Bacteria
Yootaek Kim 1 and Kyongwoo Lee 2
1 Department of the Materials Engineering, Kyonggi University, Suwon, 16227, Korea
[email protected]
2
Dept. of Materials Engineering, Kyonggi University, Suwon, 16227, Korea
[email protected]
Abstract. Based on the research according to which photosynthetic bacteria
fixes CO2 in the process of producing hydrogen during light irritation, this
study combined ceramic material with photosynthetic bacteria to develop a
material which continues to reduce CO2. As ceramic material, hardened cement
paste and lightweight aggregate made with the use of the waste from power
plants were applied. As photosynthetic bacteria, rhodopseudomonas
pentothenatexigens AE8-5 was used and cultivated in 27S culture medium. A
ceramic specimen was put in the culture medium with photosynthetic bacteria,
and then was cultured in shaking incubator at 25-30℃, pH7, 6000lux, and
120RPM. After the injection of the bacteria, this study performed GC-TCD
analysis on the gas in the bottle, and continued to observe an amount of CO2.
When 30g of ceramic aggregate with low reaction with CO2 was used and
photosynthetic bacteria were irradiated, CO2 reduced up to around 40%.
Keywords: Lightweight aggregate, Cement, CO2 reduction, Photosynthetic
bacteria
1
Introduction
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is being researched actively. In the CCS
technology, mineral carbonation process induces CO2 to react with a particular metal
or a compound to fix CO2 stable thermodynamically. There are many studies on the
process [1, 2].
The study on photosynthetic bacteria that produces hydrogen during light
irradiation first revealed that when CO2 is fixed in the condition of light, chromatium
vinosum, a kind of purple sulfur bacteria, uses molecular hydrogen as electron donor.
It was argued that the microorganism based hydrogen production technology is
applied beneficially to various circumstances, such as pure energy production, oxygen
generation, carbon fixation in air, and disposal of organic wastes including waste
water of food factory and food waste [3-5].
Domestically and internationally, the research according to which it is possible to
fix CO2 in air depending on a type of photosynthetic bacteria has been announced. As
described earlier, the research on carbon capture and storage based on ceramic
ISSN: 2287-1233 ASTL
Copyright © 2015 SERSC
Advanced Science and Technology Letters
Vol.116 (Bioscience and Medical Research 2015)
material is being conducted home and abroad. But, there are not many studies on
constant CO2 reduction through the application of microorganism. Therefore, to
maximize CO2 reduction rate, this study developed the ceramic material that serves as
a house of bacteria to maximize long survival and efficiency of photosynthetic
bacteria and observed bacterial applicability and efficiency change. If bacteria are
successfully cultured in ceramic material and make them remain, it is likely to
develop microorganism-ceramic mixed construction material that helps to reduce CO 2
constantly.
2
2.1
Experiments
Materials
Ceramic specimens were aggregate made with waste and hardened cement paste. In
the case of aggregate, lightweight aggregate (LWA) produced in Korean Y power
plant was sieved with the size of 5-10mm. Regarding the dry material mix ratio of
cement specimen, binder and sand was mixed at the ratio of 1 to 0.2 (weight ratio),
and water-to-binder ratio was 30wt%. The specimen was cured at normal temperature
and pressure, and then was cut with the size of 5x5x10 mm for use.
2.2
CO2 reduction rate
The photosynthetic bacteria used in this experiment were rhodopseudomonas
pentothenatexigens AE8-5, which was cultured in 27s medium for experiment. Table
1 presents compositions of 27s medium. The container was 165ml sealable glass
bottle in which the medium and ceramic specimen were put and was sterilized in
Autoclave at 120°C for 10 minutes. After that, the container was sealed with rubber
lid and aluminum cap to block off external gas. The bacteria and CO2 were inserted
through the rubber lid with the use of a syringe, and then were cultured in shaking
incubator at 25-30°C, pH 7, 6000lux, and 120 RPM. According to the number of
culture days, 0.1ml gas was collected from the cultured sample by a syringe, and GCTCD(gas chromatography thermal conductivity detector) was used to observe
constantly the concentration of CO2 in the bottle
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3
3.1
Results and discussion
Cement base specimen
In the case of the cement specimens, when 60cc CO2 was injected regardless of
carbonation and bacteria, CO2 was completely removed in four hours. To increase the
CO2 concentration in the sample, this researcher injected again 60cc CO 2 after 60cc
CO2 insertion. In this case, CO2 also disappeared completely in the bottle.
It is
judged that the reduction effect of the carbonation of the cement specimen appeared
faster and larger than the effect of bacteria. Therefore, it was hard to observe any
additional CO2 reduction effect of photosynthetic bacteria. In the case of the
experiment where ceramic specimen was combined with photosynthetic bacteria, the
cement specimen constantly reacted fast with CO2 regardless of carbonation. As a
result, there was a limitation in investigating the role of photosynthetic bacteria. In the
basic experiment conducted to the effect of photosynthetic bacteria when ceramic
material was used together with photosynthetic bacteria, it was concluded that
ceramic material with little CO2 reaction should be used. Therefore, this study used as
the ceramic material the artificial lightweight aggregate made with recycled waste
material produced in Korea.
Table 1. Composition of 27s medium
Yeast extract
Trisodium cirtrate dehydrate
Sodium Thiosulfate Anhydrous
Absolute ethanol
KH2PO4
MgSO4∙7H2O
NaCl
NH4Cl
CaCl2∙2H2O
Trace element solution SL-6
L-cystein
Distilled water
pH
3.2
1.0g
1.0g
1.0g
0.5ml
0.5g
0.4g
0.4g
0.4g
0.05g
1ml
0.035g
1L
7.0
Lightweight aggregate specimen
Sintered eco material which is expected to have low reaction with CO2 was used.
Medium was put in the ceramic aggregate, and bacteria were inoculated. Fig. 1
presents the photographs about the samples in the above condition after inoculation
according to the number of culture days. As shown in Fig. 1, the sample with
250
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Advanced Science and Technology Letters
Vol.116 (Bioscience and Medical Research 2015)
aggregate, medium, and bacteria turned red just as the sample with medium and
bacteria, and it was observed that bacteria were cultured well normally.
Fig. 2 illustrates the results of GC-TCD analysis on the samples in Fig. 1. As
shown in Fig. 2, the sample with medium only and the sample with medium and
aggregate showed rare change in CO2 concentration. In the condition of the
inoculation of photosynthetic bacteria, the sample with medium only and the sample
with medium and aggregate had a reduction in CO2 concentration. When medium and
bacteria were used, CO2 reduced by the highest 50%. When aggregate was used, it
also fell by around 40%. It is considered that the reason why CO 2 reduction rate was
different depending on whether to use aggregate was either that an amount of medium
was decreased relatively due to the volume of aggregate in order to keep the same
height as the case where aggregate was used, or that aggregate impeded irradiation.
More in-depth research on the issue will be conducted.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig. 1. Photographs of specimen bottles using 27s medium, bacteria and ceramic aggregates
according to the time. The height of contents in the bottles were fixed. The first bottle from the
left: 100ml medium only, the second bottle from the left; 100ml medium and 0.5g/L bacteria,
the third bottle from the left: medium with 30g aggregates, the last bottle from the left: medium
with 30g aggregates and 0.5g/L bacteria. Each bottle contains CO 2 26cc at first. (a) After
inoculation, (b) 3days after inoculation, (c) 5days after inoculation, and (d) 7days after
inoculation.
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Medium
Medium+Bacteria
Medium+Aggregate
Medium+Aggregate+Bacteria
60
50
CO 2(%)
40
30
20
10
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Day
Fig. 2. . Results of GC-TCD analyses of the specimens in Fig. 1.
4
Conclusions
This study injected and applied two kinds of ceramic material to the medium
necessary for the proliferation of photosynthetic bacteria and analyzed compatibility.
When cement specimen was used, the reaction of cement specimen with CO 2
occurred faster than the reaction of photosynthetic bacteria with CO 2, regardless of
the pre-process of carbonation or carbonation under supercritical conditions. As a
result, it was hard to find CO2 reduction effect of photosynthetic bacteria. It was
expected that ceramic material would serve as a house of photosynthetic bacteria and
thus help to proliferate the bacteria and increase CO2 reduction rate. However,
although ceramic material negatively influenced CO2 reduction rate, the use of
ceramic material help to make CO2 reduction rate reach 40%. Therefore, this study is
meaningful in the point that it proved that if the construction material manufactured in
combination of ceramic material and photosynthetic bacteria is applied in everyday
life, it is likely to contribute to reducing CO2 in air constantly and effectively.
Acknowledgments. This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MESR) (No. NRF2013R1A2A204014978).
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