Our research objectives are to determine under what conditions microalgal-based $CO_2$capture from flue gases is economically attractive. Specifically, our objective here was to select microalgae that are temperature, pH and flue gas tolerant. Microalgae were grown under five different temperatures, three different pH and five different flue gas mixtures besides 100% $CO_2$(gas concentrations that the cells were exposed to ranged 5.7-100% $CO_2$, 0-3504ppm SO$_2$, 0-328ppm NO, and 0-126ppm NO$_2$). Our results indicate that the microalgal strains tested exhibit a substantial ability to withstand a wide range of temperature (54 strains tested), pH (20 strains tested) and flue gas composition (24 strains tested) likely to be encountered in cultures used for carbon sequestration from smoke stack gases. Our results indicate that microalgal photosynthesis is a limited but viable strategy for $CO_2$capture from flue gases produced by stationary combustion sources.