Wastewater and algal biofuels

February 18, 2011 |

In New York, Rochester Institute of Technology researchers are working on using wastewater to grow algae for biodiesel.  The process cleans wastewater by consuming nitrates and phosphates while reducing both bacteria and toxins in the water.  The algae can then be used to produce biodiesel.  The researchers are Jeff Lodge, associate professor of biological sciences at RIT,  Eric Lannan, a grad student working on his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at RIT,  and Emily Young, a chemistry major.

They are using the alga strain Scenedesmus with wastewater from the Frank E. Van Lare Wastewater Treatment Plant in Irondequoit, N.Y.  They have isolated and extracted lipids from the algae  to produce biodiesel.

Lodge states,  “Algae will take out all the ammonia—99 percent—88 percent of the nitrate and 99 percent of the phosphate from the wastewater — all those nutrients you worry about dumping into the receiving water. In three to five days, pathogens are gone. We’ve got data to show that the coliform counts are dramatically reduced below the level that’s allowed to go out into Lake Ontario.”  The researchers have gone from a 30 gallons of wastewater system in a lab to a 100 gallon system at Environmental Energy Technologies, a Rochester Institute spinoff.  The researchers plan on building a system comprised of a mobile greenhouse with a scale up to as large as 1,000 gallons.

More on the story.

Category: Research

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