Drastically reducing our CO2 emissions is the most important strategy against man-made climate change. We’re fast reaching the point where we simply can no longer afford to emit greenhouse gases into the air through industry, food supply, infrastructure and the like. However, completely halting greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, across the entire world, is sadly unrealistic. Researchers and experts are therefore talking about net-zero, which means compensating for existing CO2 emissions.
In June 2024, for example, the European Union passed the Net-Zero Industry Act, which sees decarbonisation and the associated technologies as an important goal for future industry. However, the EU Commission already formulated the scale of the required CO2 compensation quite specifically in 2018: “The EU target of climate neutrality by 2050 can only be achieved if several hundred million tonnes of CO2 are captured industrially by the middle of the century and then either stored or reused,” says Dr Oliver Geden, Head of the Climate Policy Research Cluster at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).
In short, we urgently need more effective decarbonisation technologies. Luckily, researchers from the University of Palermo and the “Two Frontiers” project have recently discovered a curious ally.
Chonkus illustrates the potential of cyanobacteria
Technologies designed to capture CO2 from the atmosphere have existed for some time, with reforestation being one of the most well-known methods. Reforestation is frequently promoted as a solution for carbon offsetting, but its effectiveness can be limited. While forests can indeed help reduce atmospheric carbon, the slow growth of trees means that these projects often have delayed impacts. Additionally, issues such as monocultures and other poor management practices can exacerbate the CO2 problem, rather than alleviating it. The German Federal Forest Inventory in 2024, for example, discovered that the German forest has now even become a source of CO2. In other words, they produce CO2 instead of binding the greenhouse gas.
As an alternative to reforestation programmes, CO2 can also be stored in the form of biochar, or filtered using industrial plants. (Find an overview of decarbonisation options in one of RESET’s thoroughly researched background articles here.) In nature, however, there are organisms that are particularly good at binding carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. And these organisms—cyanobacteria—are still largely unexplored.
With the bacterium UTEX 3222, researchers off the coast of Sicily have now discovered a particularly efficient cyanobacterium. Chonkus was discovered in environments where there is an above-average amount of CO2 dissolved in the water. It has a viscous consistency and rapid reproduction in test tubes, which, according to the researchers, is a major advantage for use in bioreactors. These in turn can be used industrially for decarbonisation.
Why is UTEX 3222 so interesting?
Braden Tierney and Sam Schubert, the discoverers of UTEX 3222, have been able to isolate the bacterium in laboratory samples. Braden Tierney told SciTechNews that “several properties observed in Chonkus are useful both in its natural environment and for us humans.” These include its high potential to bind carbon dioxide.
During this process, chonkus grows, sinking to the ground. As “green peanut butter”-like mass, as the researchers describe it, Chonkus settles and can be removed comparatively easily from test tubes or bioreactors.
This property could reduce the costs of industrial use by around 15 to 30 percent. Other cyanobacteria would have to be concentrated and dried using industrial processes, so UTEX 3222 takes over this task to a large extent.
However, as the bacterium naturally occurs in waters heated by volcanic activity, the researchers had to recreate these conditions in the lab. This process is energy-intensive and could be problematic when used as a decarboniser. In addition, choncus binds carbon dioxide in water and not in the air, so we cannot yet use it in filter systems or other decarbonisation programmes.
Two Frontiers explores even more areas
According to the researchers, equipping bioreactors for decarbonisation with UTEX 3222 is only one potential application. Algae are used in industry for the extraction of omega-3 fatty acids, for example, or to produce spirulina, which then finds its way into the supermarket as a superfood. Food experts see algae as an important food for a sustainable future. As they contain both omega fatty acids and vitamin B12, they are a sensible food supplement for a vegan diet – and therefore the most environmentally friendly form of nutrition.
With its curious nickname, UTEX 3222 is also a good advocate for further research into the potential of cyanobacteria. The Two Frontiers project has already been able to expand its research to other locations. In addition to Sicily, there are projects in Colorado and the Tyrrhenian Sea. This is because there are also waters with a high concentration of carbon dioxide. And researching how nature deals with high levels of the problematic greenhouse gas could be the key to how we should do the same.
