Microorganism can halve Matarbari CO2 emissions

Cultivation of a microorganism alongside the under-construction Matarbari coal-fired thermal power plant can reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 50 per cent while enabling production of biofuels, claimed the founder of a Japanese biotechnology company yesterday. 

Euglena are microorganisms that feature both plant and animal characteristics, growing by photosynthesis yet moving around like animals. It contains 59 nutrients and generates lipids within its body.

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Its namesake, Euglena Co, combined the lipids with industrial waste oil to create sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel fuel.

Biomass feedstocks absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis during the growth process, so the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during fuel combustion, such as in power plants, is offset, said Mitsuru Izumo, also president of Euglena Co.

The 1,200MW power plant in Maheshkhali upazila of Cox's Bazar is scheduled to fully go into production in June 2024, according to the website of Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh, which is implementing the project.

Izumo was delivering a lecture on "Solving malnutrition, poverty problems and combat climate change by Euglena's technology" at a programme organised by the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at BRAC University.

"Back when I was in university, I visited…Bangladesh…and witnessed children suffering from malnutrition. Seeking the existence of a highly nutritious food source, I began studying biology. My search led me to Euglena," states Izumo in the company's website.

"…I started this company (in 2005) in order to turn Euglena into food and build a large-scale cultivation plant to fix carbon dioxide and produce biofuels," he said.

Through successful outdoor mass cultivation in December 2005, the company moved on from biofuels to four other business areas -- healthcare, beauty care, genome/health check and a social welfare GENKI Program. Listed in Tokyo Stock Exchange since December 2014, the company has a current market value of Tk 10 billion, said Izumo.

Part of the proceeds from the sale of the company's products is used to fund the Euglena GENKI Program, which distributes cookies containing nutrient-rich euglena to the children of Bangladesh free of charge, states the website.

Izumo also spoke about corporate management, saying that the company's board members' average age was 43.5 years while female ratio 29 per cent.

Moreover, since 2019 the company has appointed three "chief future officials" aged 18 years and below who propose actions for sustainable future to the management, he said.

They include a 15-year-old girl who supervised revision of business objectives to reflect the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and held a workshop on the theme of unconscious bias in the company, he added.