A Sustainable Approach Towards Non-Photosynthetic Conversion of Carbon-Di Oxide to Bio-Diesel Utilizing Mixed Microbial Culture- Steps Towards Climate Change

Concentration level of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere has reached around 400 parts per million, in the last three million years. This has resulted in the problem of global warming and climate change. One of the efficient solution which is suggested is the carbon capture utilization using biological route. Hence, in the present abstract, we are discussing our experimental work (batch mode), which involves removal of CO₂ utilizing mixed microbial culture obtained from city`s sewage treatment plant (STP). This can be referred as an example of non-photosynthetic conversion of CO₂. The work discusses few sets of experiments which were carried out to analyze the leachates (biomass + supernatant) obtained from experiments using FTIR and GC-MS for the identification of value-added products. The feasibility of the process was checked, also, theoretically by performing approximate carbon balance and thermodynamic assessment. The mixed microbial culture has shown the removal efficiency of around 78% at 100 ppm of Fe(II) concentration which is more when results were compared with individual strains of P.putida (RE – 67.44%) and E.cloacae (RE – 58.44%). The by-product characterization confirmed the presence of fatty acids (C7–C25) and hydrocarbons (C9–C32) in the extractable amount. The FAME content yield obtained from fatty acids, was found to be at its maximum of 91.55% for the mixed microbial culture and qualified as biodiesel. The present work paved a possible pathway for non-photosynthetic production of biodiesel, which is a step towards sustainable processes and has a potential to fulfill present day industrial needs.