Bioenergy Production Can Be Enhanced with Tiny 'Disc-Shaped' Blooms Manipulating Light

'Coccolith disks' made of calcium carbonate can be a promising biomass resource due to their ability to produce bioenergy.

A physiological significance of coccolith formation in E. huxleyi can enhance efficient bioenergy production with the microalgae, Hiroshima University reported.

These are "disk-shaped plates of calcium carbonate" that have been made by coccolithophore algae, along with E. huxleyi. These blooms, it is understood, tend to "modulate" solar light in the ocean, though it is unclear how they do it.

While examining the "optical function" of coccoliths in order to understand their light manipulating abilities, researchers made an aqueous suspension of isolated coccoliths of Emiliania cells and studied their light-scattering properties. The coccoliths showed magnetic orientation even while they floated, which influenced the light scattering.

"Surprisingly, the percentage of coccoliths oriented in the same direction increased during exposure to the 400 mT to 500 mT magnetic field," said professor Masakazu Iwasaka of Hiroshima University. "In addition, an individual coccolith has a specific direction of light-scattering."

Hence, there is some understanding about how the coccoliths control light that will be used for photosynthesis in E. huxleyi, also explaining the use of the method for renewable energy.

"The energy issue is one of the most important problems on earth. Recently, many types of renewable energy resources such as solar light, wind, water, and biomass have attracted attention for their use as alternatives for fossil fuels," the researchers said.

The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Scientific Reports.