Effect of carbon source towards the growth of Chlorella vulgaris for CO2 bio-mitigation and biodiesel production

► CO2 bubbling and NaHCO3 were used as carbon source to grow freshwater microalgae. ► CO2 bubbling accelerated 5.2 times higher biomass productivity compared to NaHCO3. ► High biomass productivity does not correlate to high CO2 removal efficiency. ► Sequential photobioreactors were successfully developed to increase CO2 removal efficiency.