The increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has seriously imperilled the future of life on Earth. Though many countries have committed to decrease their CO₂ emissions, the damage caused due to high CO₂ concentration may have already become irreversible. These include:

• Accelerated climate change
• Loss of biodiversity
• Compromised food security

These ill-effects, which can be attributed to human activities, raise serious ethical concerns regarding our responsibility to protect the ecosystem for our future generations, our stewardship of the planet, and our moral obligation to protect other species from the effects of our actions.

Our project aims to address these ethical concerns by attempting to capture atmospheric CO₂ and converting it into a more valuable form (such as single-cell protein, for example). While the amount of CO₂ captured via this approach will be very less compared to the magnitude of the problem, our approach does provide a way to mitigate, in a quantifiable manner, the issue of climate change.

A possible ethical concern of our approach is the failure to address the very root of the problem— unchecked CO₂ emissions—while providing a solution that can be used as an excuse for not limiting CO₂ emissions. We submit that our approach is not a standalone solution to the problem of climate change; rather, it is one of many technological (and indeed, policy) solutions that may have to be deployed in concert to make a tangible impact.

Increase in sea levels caused due to melting polar ice is predicted to impact populations living near seashores and on low-lying islands. Our approach to carbon capture and utilization may thus be one of the proposed solutions that can have a positive impact on society.

Our project envisions using the captured carbon to produce value-added products, such as single-cell protein or antioxidants. These products would be useful in addressing food security in vulnerable communities, as well as provide nutritional supplements that can be used to manage health issues arising due to changing lifestyles.

In our project, we have captured atmospheric carbon in the form of cell biomass, for which we have used naturally-occurring microbes. However, genetically modified organisms can also be used. The legal implications of cultivating recombinant microbes at large scales varies with countries and regions. A common concern would be to prevent unintended release or escape of the genetically modified organisms, as that could lead to horizontal gene transfer.

To start with, we envision using naturally-occurring microbes for CO₂ capture, thus avoiding legal hurdles altogether.