Nature itself is adept at recycling carbon. The problem is that it can no longer keep up with industrialization. Microalgae are known to be one of the more efficient carbon recyclers in nature and have long been seen as a potential solution to address this imbalance. The problem is that growing algae at scale is land, capital and energy intensive. Hydrobe® technology has solved this piece of the puzzle through two key innovations. 1. The biological process that breaks down the microalgae cell wall and converts this layer of cellulose into simple sugars is efficient, scalable and low cost. It is a novel invention that ultimately resolves the major energy constraint of growing microalgae in small footprint solutions such as large volume enclosed tanks; and 2. This process effectively reduces the microalgae growth cycle from seven days to just two days, meaning even less energy and land area are needed for a given production volume. Critically, this process relies on the use and continuous recycling of low-cost media, which reduces other production costs. At laboratory level, this process has achieved carbon fixation productivity rates greater than 8 g/l/day. While sugars can be fermented into hydrogen, ethanol or other sources of energy, they can also be used without processing to materially increase microalgae production further with minimal energy input. The combination of these impacts profoundly reduces the land area needed. For example, it is reasonable to expect that 25,000 hectares of land would be required to produce 10,000 tons of canola oil, whereas an operating Hydrobe system would generate this quantity of lipids on less than 4 hectares. The Hydrobe process runs optimally when fueled by large flue gas streams that contain 10% or more CO₂. Therefore, it is best located at or near an industrial emissions source such as a steel mill, mineral refinery, power plant, steam reformer, cement plant or other industrial facility.